US Blacklists Dozens of Chinese Biotech Firms That Aid Military, Including for ‘Brain-Control Weaponry’
The United States on Dec. 16 placed trade and investment restrictions on dozens of Chinese entities over their role in weaponizing biotechnology and other U.S. innovations to bolster the Chinese military and to further its human rights abuses. Among the 34 Chinese entities targeted was the Academy of Military Medical Sciences—China’s top medical research institute run by the Chinese military—alongside its 11 research institutes, for aiding the Chinese military with biotechnology, including “purported brain-control weaponry,” the department stated without elaborating on the technology. In 2018, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences applied for a patent for technology for collecting and processing brain signals, according to an online patent repository. The Institute of Radiation and Radiation Medicine, one of its subsidiaries that was targeted, published a Chinese paper in 2012 discussing how to establish a data bank on the behavioral effects of “mind control assault weapons.” Trade restrictions were also imposed on HMN Technologies, formerly a company under Chinese telecom provider Huawei as Huawei Marine, as well as Jiangsu Hengtong OpticElectric, Shanghai Aoshi Control Technology Co., and Zhongtian Technology Submarine Cable, for their role in acquiring U.S. items to modernize the Chinese military. These bodies were put on the “entity list,” which bars U.S. companies from doing business with the sanctioned entity without a special license. “The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a Dec. 16 statement. “We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security.” The trade restrictions followed a U.S. investment ban last week on Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime, after it was discovered that its subsidiary had developed a facial recognition program targeting ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang, where Beijing is conducting an expansive campaign of repression. https://www.ntd.com/us-blacklists-dozens-of-chinese-biotech-firms-that-aid-military-including-for-brain-control-weaponry_715459.html
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