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When the twin girls were born, one October night in 2018, they carried a secret: a hidden tweak in their DNA even the hospital in China didn’t know about. They were the world’s first genetically engineered humans.
The next month, news of their existence broke just as the scientist behind the engineering, Dr He Jiankui, was addressing peers at a global summit. Facing down an uncharacteristically rowdy hall of scientists, he explained: with fertility treatments illegal for prospective parents with HIV in China, he had instead edited the girls as embryos to be resistant to the AIDS virus carried by their father. He said genetic testing showed that “Lulu” and “Nana” were “as healthy as any babies”. Their real identity is now a state secret in China and it is not known how they are doing.
Normal text size
Very large text size
When the twin girls were born, one October night in 2018, they carried a secret: a hidden tweak in their DNA even the hospital in China didn’t know about. They were the world’s first genetically engineered humans.
The next month, news of their existence broke just as the scientist behind the engineering, Dr He Jiankui, was addressing peers at a global summit. Facing down an uncharacteristically rowdy hall of scientists, he explained: with fertility treatments illegal for prospective parents with HIV in China, he had instead edited the girls as embryos to be resistant to the AIDS virus carried by their father. He said genetic testing showed that “Lulu” and “Nana” were “as healthy as any babies”. Their real identity is now a state secret in China and it is not known how they are doing.
Should China s top researchers face sanctions on suspicion of developing bioweapons?
By
Atul Aneja ( IANS) |
Published on
Tue, May 11 2021 19:36 IST |
3 Views
NPPA tweets DGFT order to prohibit export of hydroxychloroquine without exceptions. Image Source: IANS News
New Delhi, May 11: The May 7 article in The Australian newspaper revealing that bioweapons were on the radar of Chinese academics and military scientists since 2015 has triggered a legitimate demand for sanctioning Chinas science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) researchers.
The daily brought into global spotlight the existence of a Chinese military paper that discusses the potential of bioweapons based on SARS coronaviruses. Covid-19 is also a mutant of SARS coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. The findings by the Australian have reopened the debate about the origins of Covid-19, driving holes in the theory that a wet market in Wuhan, a stone s throw from the Wuhan Institute of Virolog
‘New’ Chinese Military Paper on Weaponizing Coronaviruses West Should Respond With Defensive Decoupling and End to STEM Cooperation With China
Commentary
On May 7, The Australian revealed the existence of a Chinese military paper from 2015 that discusses the weaponization of SARS coronaviruses. COVID-19 is the disease caused by a SARS coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.
Given 6.9 million COVID-19 deaths globally and counting, such military-scientific musings are the height of irresponsibility and should be decisively countered through new sanctions against China’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) researchers.
In the paper, Chinese military scientists and senior Chinese “public health” officials predict that World War III, if it comes, will be decided by new biological weapons. We are no longer in the age of gunpowder or nuclear weapons. The future of war is biological, they argue.
On December 11, 2020, Chinese paper
Global Times reported that its border defense troops near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India received “Iron Man’ type exoskeleton suits to conduct tasks such as supply delivery, patrol and sentry duties in high altitude environments.
Les gardes-frontière de l armée chinoise en région de Ngari, au #Tibet, commencent à s équiper de l exosquelette passif pour les missions de ravitaillement.
L Institut 208 du groupe NORINCO a quant à lui reçu en Décembre une 2ème commande de l armée pour les troupes de montagne. pic.twitter.com/bPA3fxedTT
Several soldiers attached to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Xinjiang Military Command carried food and water supplies weighing 20 kg to an undisclosed location. Due to lack of oxygen in high altitude regions, goods feel much heavier than their actual weight, while human stamina decreases with corresponding increase in elevation. As such the weight of the backpacks are transferred