The US-China war also passes through artificial intelligence and biotechnology
The in-depth study by Giuseppe Gagliano
The competition between China and the United States is also played out on biotechnology, as demonstrated by the genetic engineering experiments carried out by the Chinese scientist He Jiankui on human embryos that were condemned by China .
Beyond the condemnation by Beijing – naturally also determined by the very harsh protests raised by the international scientific community – there are, however, some data of great relevance in this matter on China's long-term objectives.
Firstly, the fact that the Chinese scientist received about $ 40 million in funding from Shenzen Consun Venture Capital Investment Management, a venture capital firm that is owned by a technology research firm originally from Shenzen, namely the Coship Eletronics.
Secondly, Shenzen Consun is an investment company that focuses mainly on the healthcare sector and which also operates in the most advanced biotechnology sector as evidenced by its investments in a startup known as K2 Oncology aimed at researching organoids derived from patients that could be used to treat certain cancers.
The third element, equally significant, is that the Chinese scientist would have invested a large part of his money in the shares of seven companies including Shenzen Hanhai Venture Capital Investment Management, Shenzen Nanke Biotechnology, etc. Specifically, the Chinese scientist would have control of about 45.5% of the shares of the latter biotechnology company.
All of this should come as no surprise when we consider the fact that China has invested about $ 9 billion in the field of artificial intelligence and in the context of biotechnology.
Indeed, China's aim is to achieve global leadership both in the context of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.
On a scientific level, China intends – in the long term – to decode the main genetic profiles of entire populations through the symbiosis of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, a symbiosis that could certainly significantly change the geopolitical equilibrium at a global level.
In fact, we must not forget an important fact and that is that China has already surpassed the United States in the sampling of genetic sequences as evidenced by the fact that the largest Chinese institute of genetic engineering – the Beijing Genomics Institute based in Shenzen – is the most important institute in the world in which there are about 40 million DNA samples.
Inside this institute, real armies of researchers work who map and sequence DNA of plants and animal species, providing their services to more than 60 countries with the aim of identifying diseases but above all with the aim of discovering the most secret mechanisms of human intelligence.
However, a power like China that has hegemonic aims cannot act only in terms of technological investments or civil and military infrastructures with the aim of implementing the debt trap. It must also necessarily act through soft power as the recent events related to the Covid pandemic demonstrate .
And it is precisely in order to achieve this goal that eleven years ago the Chinese president gave life to a dense network of international institutes known as Confucius Institutes which officially aim to spread Chinese culture, language and traditions to foreign countries but which in reality are real Trojan horses from China to carry out espionage activities.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/la-guerra-usa-cina-passa-anche-intelligenza-artificiale-e-biotecnologie/ on Tue, 01 Dec 2020 05:45:56 +0000.