SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
China conducting biological tests to create super soldiers, US spy chief says
China has conducted testing on its army in the hope of creating biologically enhanced soldiers, according to the top intelligence official in the US.
John Ratcliffe, who has served as Donald Trump's director of national intelligence since May, made the claims in a newspaper editorial, where he warned that China "poses the greatest threat to America today".
[...] "US intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities," Ratcliffe wrote. "There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing's pursuit of power."
Also at The Wall Street Journal (archive), BioSpace and Interesting Engineering:
In a report published last year in Jamestown, the authors Elsa Kania and Wilson VornDick offer insight into China's interest in gene editing.
"While the potential leveraging of CRISPR to increase human capabilities on the future battlefield remains only a hypothetical possibility at the present, there are indications that Chinese military researchers are starting to explore its potential," state the scholars, Elsa Kania, an expert on Chinese defense technology at the Center for a New American Security, and Wilson VornDick, a consultant on China matters and former Navy officer.
See also: State Dept. terminates five exchange programs with China, calling them 'propaganda'
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday December 06 2020, @07:23PM (1 child)
Perhaps. The interplay between a lot of psychological characteristics is poorly understood. Institutional loyalty though I think has more to do with an inclination towards authoritarianism/strict hierarchy loyalty. Consider the vicious attack dog that's fiercely loyal to its master.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2020, @09:25PM
The dog is only doing as it's trained +/- some instinct. The owner who gives it food to reward that behavior is vicious, not the dog, who is only doing what it knows.