Recent Advances in Dual-Use Virology and Nanotechnology Research in China
Executive Summary
1. While China previously required intensive and targeted international connectivity to obtain the technology and specialized knowledge required to make advancements in fields such as virology and nanotechnology, recent evidence suggests that this is no longer the case.
2. On January 4, 2024 arguably the most high-risk SARS-CoV-2 experiment to date involving a pangolin virus was carried out by the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter (BAIC-SM) Science and Engineering, which is part of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT).
3. These researchers claimed that a new pangolin coronavirus isolate, GX_P2V C7, caused 100% mortality in a humanized mice model. The researchers then tried to take the ‘lethal’ tone out of their report with a new January 24, 2024 version that attempted to justify their study as an approach for vaccine or drug development studies.
4. On a 2021 BUCT overseas talent recruitment program announcement, it clearly stated that BUCT is ‘treating industrial-academic fusion and military-civil fusion as key development opportunities, and to establish the BAIC-SM Science and Engineering’.
5. In August 2023, a study conducted by a team at the Wuhan Institute of Technology (WIT) was published in the American Society of Microbiology’s Journal of Virology. This study generated a new coronavirus that has very high lethality in aged mice and has strong potential to effectively use human ACE2 receptor.
6. The data about the pathogenicity of this new pathogen in humanized mice is intentionally omitted in this new report, or just cannot be revealed.
7. This type of high-risk research has its recent historical origins in the United States. An April 19, 2002, U.S. patent filing (U.S. Patent Number US7279327B2) clearly demonstrates that American researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill literally engineered the first SARS virus. The first officially identified case of the alleged SARS outbreak in China was in Guangdong Province in November 2002.
8. Researchers from the Hefei Institute of Physical Science (HIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), recently developed a smart DNA molecular nanorobot model. This model innovatively proposes a non-linear gathering ‘siege’ of biological targets, allowing for advanced signal amplification and intelligent targeted drug delivery.
9. The study suggests that this technology has potential applications in biosensing, bioimaging and drug delivery. However, there are risks associated with this advancement.
10. The ability of nanorobots to transport biological agents directly to target cells with such precision could also have dual-use applications, especially when considering the established linkages between HIPS and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
