ZKEA
World Outbreak Update
China, PRCChina has the distinction of being the only modern country to be intensively attacked by biological weapons. These attacks were carried out by Japan during World War 2 and cost untold numbers of lives. As a result China has a visceral understanding that biological weapons are a real and potent threat. Probably more so than any other country, China has never forgotten the evils of World War 2. This is partly due to the human and material losses of that war, but is perhaps even more due to the fact that Japan has never fully acknowledged the role its armies played in the many atrocities.Despite being victimized by these weapons and despite having signed the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, China has its own extensive biological weapons program. This program is very secret; there are few open-source publications that discuss its current status and extent. However, it is known that China had a nascent biowarfare capability prior to signing the treaty and that this capability has since been greatly enhanced. It is generally believed that this effort is now very sophisticated. In fact, with the demise of the Soviet biopreparat program, it is possible that China might have most advanced modern germ warfare arsenal in the world today. It is impossible to cleanly separate civilian biotechnology research from military research. This is one of the central challenges of genetic technologies. Even purely scientific research can have unanticipated military ramifications. This dynamic is striking in the case of China, in that the Chinese have an extremely robust indigenous biotechnology infrastructure. Biotechnology has been chosen by the government as a prime area of focus and the results are impressive. For example, China is already a world leader in genetically engineering plants. And it is second only to the United States in the breadth and depth of overall civilian genetic applications. However, such technology is equally applicable to military applications. This is particularly stark when one considers technology imports. To catalyze and augment indigenous efforts, China created the "836 program". 863 is a massive and systematic attempt to procure the best western technology and apply it to China's own development. This program of imports is intensively orchestrated by the government and focuses on those foundational technologies most pertinent to advancing scientific and economic development. Among these technologies, China considers biotechnology preeminent. These imported technologies have, in fact, been very visible in enhancing China's civilian biotechnology program. However, it is also believed up to half of all these imports have been secretly directed to hidden military applications as well. Through this method the Chinese have created a potent array of biological weapons. Discerning the particular focus of an effort - civilian or military - is an intractable problem. Even so, a few countries have tried. In particular, the United States has attempted to identify and block the transfer of technologies that (it felt) were destined to pure bioweapon applications. These attempts have been intermittent and probably not very successful. In a global economy there are always plenty of eager sellers. A country that is blocked in one area can usually easily find another source. There are always a myriad of creative ways to work around the lack of some primary technology. And, when a technology can not be bought, there is always the option of espionage. Indeed, the United States has been particularly concerned by this and in 1999 published the Cox Report - a summary and indictment of Chinese efforts to steal or otherwise procure American technology. Although primarily focused on the nuclear angle, this report also commented on China's interest in acquiring American technology for bioweapons.
China's biological weapons testing center is apparently co-located with to its nuclear program in Lop Nor. The open literature does not fully describe what agents China has weaponized. However, it is probably a reasonable speculation that the old standbys such as anthrax, Botulinum Toxin and smallpox are included in their program. It is also reported (from Russian sources) that the Chinese have weaponized some form of viral hemorrhagic fevers. In fact, the Russians report that the Chinese suffered at least two accidents with these agents in the late 1980s, resulting in localized epidemics in the civilian population.
Link:
FAS: Brief Summary Of China's Biological Warfare Program and History
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The Complete Guide To Biological Weapons
by U.S. Department of Defense |
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The Coming Plague
by Laurie Garret |
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The Demon In The Freezer
by Richard Preston |
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The Collapse Of Public Health
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The Menace of Emerging Infections
by Madeline Drexler |
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The Hot Zone
by Richard Preston |
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BioHazard
by Ken Alibek |
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Plague Wars
by Tom Mangold |
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The Biology of Doom
by Ed Regis |
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Living Terrors: Survive The Bioterrorist Catastrophe
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Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox
by Jonathan Tucker |
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Virus X: Tracking The New Killer Plagues
by Frank Ryan |
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Virus Hunter
by C.J. Peters |
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Ebola: Through The Eyes of The People
by William Close |
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The Cobra Event
by Richard Preston |
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Germs: America's Secret War
by Judith Miller |
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Man & Microbes: Plagues Throughout History
by Arno Karlen |