“Command of Mind”: China’s Stealthy Invasion to Destroy Freedom and Democracy

In the past few years, in Chinese universities there have been more than a dozen cases of students reporting their professors to authorities for “improper remarks” in classroom. The accused professors were subsequently punished, varying from issuing apologies to losing teaching positions. In March this year, such case occurred inTaiwan. Zhao Mingwei, an associate professor at Chung Yuan Christian University, was reported by a student from mainland China for making remarks in his class that the new coronavirus pneumonia originated in Wuhan, China. Pressured by the university authorities, Professor Zhao had to apologize twice.

Similar incidents have happened in the United States too. For example, in 2017, the Chinese students in the University of California, San Diego pressured the school to cancel an invitation to the Dalai Lama for the commencement speech. In November 2019, Columbia University’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) protested a panel discussion on the human rights situation in China and its overseas infiltration, forcing the school to cancel it at the last minute, citing security reasons.

Such incidents were generally considered to be gross interferences of freedom of speech and academic freedom. However, things may not be as simple as they seem to be. In fact, there is a hidden agenda behind these phenomena. First of all, it should be understood that such behavior, whether inside or outside China, is encouraged by the Chinese government. In China, the “student informants” system has been publicly implemented in colleges and universities. It is supposedly a student organization responsible for “providing teaching and learning information to school authorities".Setting up this kind of student organization means that such behaviors as students’ reporting their teachers and spying on each other have been institutionalized.

To understand why Chinese government encourages such behaviors, we need to begin with the “Command of Mind” concept.

It has been twenty years since the publication of Unrestricted Warfare: Thoughts on War and Tactics in the Age of Globalization. Inspired by this book, China’s younger generation military theorists, mostly born in and after 1970s, have brought some of the ideas proposed in this book further by carefully following new technological trends.  These military theorists are well-educated, many have doctorate degrees, and have had exchanges and visits with the military of other countries. Compared with their redecessors, they have broader views and are more aggressive with "theoretical innovations".

Talking about war, one cannot avoid the idea of "commanding power, that is, the “complete control in certain aspects of warfare”. In the so-called “old warfare” or "traditional warfare”, military operations are carried out in physical spaces, mainly sea, land and air. Therefore, “commanding power" means "command of the sea", "command of the land" and "command of the air".  On November 11, 1949, less than six weeks after Mao Zedong announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, the PLA Air Force was formally founded. It soon participated the Korean War. Lack of "command of the air”  led to PLA’s tremendous casualties, even Mao Zedong's eldest son died of incendiary bombs dropped by a US Douglas A-26 Invader.  Due to technological disadvantage, so far PLA is unable to overtake command of the air and the sea from the US which is perceived as China’s ultimate enemy. 

As the “Unrestricted Warfare” has subverted the “commanding power” concepts of traditional warfare, in the "new warfare" of the information and globalization era, CCP will not exhaust its national power to compete with the US military in commanding the air and the sea so as to avoid the fate of being dragged down by an "arms race" like the USSR. Instead, they are trying to seize the commanding powers of the “future warfare”.

In 2010, Guo Jiwei, author of Biotechnology Supremacy Warfare: Reconstructing Military Strategy for the New Era, proposed the concept of “biotechnogy supremacy”, namely, the commanding power in biological warfare. Four years later, the People's Liberation Army Publishing House published a book entitled Command of Mind: The Law of War and the National Security Strategy in the Global Media Era, proposing the concept "command of mind” as a “law of war”.

This book was written by two military authors. Zeng Huafeng, one of the two authors of this book, is dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of National University of Defense Technology, and the director of the Joint Institute of Political Theory Teaching Collaboration of the military academies. The other author, Shi Haiming, is associate professor and deputy director of Center for National Defense Technology and Social Development, National University of Defense Technology. He also serves as an editorial board member of National Defense Science and Technology magazine. In the same year of its publication, this book was selected for the recommended reading list for cadres of CCP Central Committee and government offices. It also won the university’s 2014 Award of Major Scientific Development.  In 2017, the book won the first prize of the Fourth Outstanding Achievement in Political Theory Research of the People’s Liberation Army issued by the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, an indication that the “command of mind” concept is highly valued by CCP’s high level leaders.

What is “command of mind”? Simply defined, it means “commanding power in the national cognitive space”. In essence, it is the power to manipulate and control the way of thinking and cognition of individuals and groups. Authors of the book believed that the battlefield of "future warfare" included not only "physical space", namely natural spaces such as sea, land, air and outer space, but also "virtual space" or "cyber space" and "cognitive space" , a space composed of human emotions, thinking, will, psychological activities, beliefs and values. "National cognitive space" refers to the cognition of the majority of the people of a country regarding their own culture, history, collective memory, social awareness, etc. As one of the battlefields of the new war, "national cognitive space" can be understood as collisions and conflicts between cultures, political systems, and values of different countries. The result is the same as that of a “real” war; the only difference is that the winner will be able to subdue the enemy without a fight. Therefore, the CCP's "command of mind" is essentially a war between totalitarianism and democracy, freedom and repression in a different form.

After the Soviet Union disintegrated, the CCP thoroughly studied the failures of Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) that led to its collapse. Ultimately, it was the people’s anger and hatred at the regime that led to USSR’s downfall. This was the reason when the crisis broke out, "not a single man", as Xi Jingpin said, came to its rescue. However, in the view of the two authors, CPSU was the victim of a silent “cognitive attack” by the United States. “The United States has carried out a subtle attack in the Soviet Union’s cognitive space," the authors claimed. As a result, "the meanings of such concepts as state, nation, politics, etc. were deconstructed and subverted. People’s thoughts and consciousness gradually fell into chaos. Under America’s perceptive manipulation and control, national heroes and historical memories used to be held noble, great, and glorious were finally deconstructed or subverted.” To avoid repeating CPSU’s mistakes, the CCP must firmly control “command of mind” and “defend national cognitive space”.

Since "command of mind" is a war in the national cognitive space, like traditional wars, one of the key points is to stabilize the home front, this is to say, “command of mind” must be applied to the Chinese people first. To this end, the CCP formulated the “four matters of confidence” ---- “confident in our chosen path, confident in our guiding theories, confident in our political system, and confident in our culture." Known as the “conficence doctrine”, it is used to resist “universal human values” and excessive punishment to curb “history nihilism”, that is, any question regarding the official narrative of history of China, CCP and PRC. In colleges and universities, the CCP has established an informant system to punish teachers making “inappropriate remarks”, and banned US social media networks and major newspapers, rigorously censors all forms of publications, etc. All these are actions to "defend the national cognitive space". 

The essence of these actions is to manipulate and control Chinese people’s mind, especially that of children and adolescents, by manipulating their way of thinking and shaping their perceptions about themselves and the world. As a result, “education” in China has been reduced to “mind training”, the goal is to train students to blindly accept official discourses and historical narratives. Saturated with official language and discourses, people have developed “conditioned reflections” to certain terms. For example, when it comes to Taiwan, their direct response is "liberation"; talking about the Dalai Lama, they immediately blurt out "separatist". This makes it difficult for many students to fit into the learning atmosphere in the West that requires independent and critical thinking. This is even more so on the Internet. When faced with different vies, many of them repeat what they were taught or just curse, rarely engage in meaningful discussions. In fact, Chinese people are the first victims of CCP’s “command of mind" tactic.

Meanwhile, CCP has launched a "command of mind” offensive by taking advantage of the basic values ​​such as freedom of speech, academic freedom, and market economy in Taiwan, Europe and the United States. This “invisible war” is taking place at this moment. For example, in the name of "promoting the Chinese culture", China has

established "Confucius institutes" in universities and "Confucius classrooms" in middle schools around the world, quietly exporting "red culture", acquired influential media through “trusted sources” and helped funding Chinese media in more than 60 countries to spread its propaganda, infiltrated European and American universities and cultural institutions through “Thousand Talents Program” and other pro-China organizations, funded think tanks in Europe and the United States to carry out research projects in line with Chinese discourses in order to influence their China policies.

For years CCP has been stealthily imposing censorship on any criticism on its policies and human right violations. In this way, CCP is slowly and steadily invading America’s "cognitive space" to influence and distort people's perception. On the other hand, CCP is taking every opportunity to “tell the China story” through their “great outreach programs”.  What is the "Chinese story"? Zeng Huafeng, one of the authors of the book, explains: "it is necessary not only to answer the question whether socialism China has a superior development advantage over the West at the moment, but also to answer from historical point of view that the Chinese socialist road is superior to the Western capitalist road."

The Wuhan pneumonia virus has caused great harm to the Chinese people, it also spread to the whole world, causing unprecedented damages to world economy. Faced with criticism from the whole world, the CCP has launched “command of mind” offensive disguised as “(dis)information campaign” at all levels.  As we can see, the offensive started from home front. In just a couple of weeks, the Chinese people overwhelmingly accepted the CCP’s claim that China was an anti-epidemic model, and "has won two months for the rest of the world”. Some experts and elites in other countries danced to CCP’s tune by praising its way of handling the virus.

People in the free world generally believe that freedom of speech and press is the best weapon to fight against propaganda. The worst propaganda we can think of is Goebbels's "a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth." The free world believes that as long as we uphold freedom of speech and press, we will defeat the Goebbel-style lies. However, now that the CCP has employed advanced scientific research results from modern psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science and other disciplines to take “command of mind", can we still be so confident? The CCP is studying our freedom of speech and take every opportunity to use it as a weapon against us. They have used a whole set of methods, not just repeating lies for a thousand times. They know the importance of freedom of speech to the system of free and democratic countries, and they attack the foundations of our constitution and force us into a passive and disadvantageous situation. How to establish a countermeasure against the CCP's "command of mind" under the premise of upholding the principle of free speech is a challenge that we have to face.

Chinese version: https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?SerialNo=87910

Unrestricted Warfare: Rulelessness is the “New Rule”

In February 1999, the Literature and Art Publishing House administered by People ’s Liberation Army (PLA) published a book entitled Unrestricted Warfare: Thoughts on Warfare and Strategy in the Age of Globalization.  Although published by the Army's Literary and Art Publishing House, it is by no means a literary work, but a book on military theory co-authored by two PLA Air Force senior colonels.  Qiao Liang,  born in 1955, is a prominent writer on military subjects. At the time of this book’s publication, he served as the deputy director of Office of Literary and Artistic Creation, under the Political Department of PLA Air Force. He was promoted to major general afterwards.  The other author, Wang Xiangshui, born in 1954, is a retired Air Force senior colonel.  Both authors were born into military families and grew up during the Cultural Revolution era. Just like Xi Jinping, they belong to the “cultural revolution generation”. 

As the title suggests, this book subverts the strategic thinking and rules of "old-style warfare”, proposes “new types of warfare” and explores military tactics, strategy and organization in the age of globalization.   It was not a surprise that it quickly attracted international attention.  In November of the same year,  the United States Embassy in China wrote a report and abstractly translated the book’s main thesis. In March 2000, the US Naval War College filed an application for reprinting permission with the publisher, which the authors proudly included in the book’s second and third edition. In the next few years, this book was translated into several languages. The term "unrestricted warfare" has become a common term used in both military and non-military contexts.   From 2006 to 2009, Johns Hopkins University held four annual symposia to examine various issues in today’s world and its relationship with the United States from the perspective of "unrestricted warfare."

In China, this book was met with such enthusiasm that it had ten prints in the first year of its first publication. In the next twenty years, the authors did not let it fade out the Chinese people’s attention. In 2009, the authors pushed out a "platinum ten-year commemorative edition".   Five years after that, a “fifteen-year commemorative edition" came to the market. In 2016, the two authors published an enlarged edition with the title Unrestricted Warfare and Anti-Unrestricted Warfare: How the Americans Respond to the New War Ideas Proposed by the Chinese.  Inspired by this book, Chinese military thinkers and researchers have spent  a lot of energy to refine some of the theories outlined in this book and proposed an array of specific ideas in an effort to make the theories operational.

What does the word "unrestricted" [literally “over-limit”] mean? The authors gave the following explanation: "The so-called over-limit means going beyond what is called or can be understood as the limit. Whether it is material, spiritual or technical; and whether it is called 'range', ‘restriction’, ‘restraint’, ‘Boundary’, ‘rules’, ‘law’, ‘limit’, even ‘taboo’ ".

In other words, what the "unrestricted warfare" wants to surpass is not only the rules and restrictions of “old style warfare”, but also all the rules and boundaries formulated by  human societies to ensure their own survival and development.

 "Traditional war" refers to the confrontation of armed forces between two or more countries in specific territories. This kind of wars, whether between countries or regions, or even expanded to the whole world, such as the two world wars, is fought between armed forces. The confrontation is carried out in physical space. Such wars follow certain rules or boundaries, for example, protections for the civilians and civilian facilities, humanitarian treatment to POWs, banning the use of mass destructive weapons, etc. These principles were formally established in a series of international agreements.

However, authors of this book argued that the concept of "territory" has also expanded with the development of the Internet and globalization, therefore, the idea of confrontation between conventional armed forces of two or more countries in a specific physical space can no longer guarantee national security. The notion that “national defense being the country ’s main security goal is somewhat outdated, at least rather inadequate. " Under such circumstances, a country, especially a weak one, must go beyond the limits of "traditional war" in order to win when it is faced with an opponent stronger than itself.

To cite the authors’ own words: "Speaking in terms of war, it can mean the boundary between the battlefield and what is not the battlefield, between what is a weapon and what is not, between soldier and the noncombatant, between the state and the non-state or supra-state. Possibly it may also include technological, scientific, theoretical, psychological, ethical, traditional, customary and other sorts of boundaries. In summary, it means all boundaries which restrict warfare to a specific range. "Although the author tried to explain that the concept of "exceeding limits" refers first of all to transcend ideology, but "transcendence" is not limited merely to "thought".  "Exceeding limits" is not just a pure theory, it also means that in specific operations, "whenever necessary and possible, choose the most appropriate means (including extreme means) beyond the limits and boundaries. "

When it comes to the ethics of human society, this is the authors’ attitude:  "…nowadays, judging the effectiveness of a particular method is not mainly a matter of looking at its attributes and whether it meets certain ethical standards, but by whether it conforms to a principle; namely, if  it is the best way to achieve the desired objective. As long as it conforms to this principle, it is the best method. "

That is to say, in the “unrestricted warfare”, there is no distinction between "front and rear", "military and civilian”, country and territory. It is not restrained by moral and ethical limits. Any person and any facility can be considered as military target. To summarize in the author's words, it is "to be a complete military Machiavelli"----in order to achieve the goal, you can do whatever you want. As a matter of fact, “complete military Machiavelli” is PLA’s tradition, as illustrated by the “siege of Changchun”. In 1948, when CCP and  the Nationalist Party were engaged in a civil war, a military blockage of Changchun, the biggest city in Manchuria at the time, was undertaken by PLA against the Nationalist army stationed inside the city. The blockage lasted for nearly five months. In the end the PLA took the city at the expense of tens and thousands of civilians starving to death.  

When all the boundaries of “old-style warfare” are broken, there is only one reality left:  the entire human society is treated as a battlefield. How to implement "unrestricted warfare" in this vast battlefield then? All that need to be done, according to the authors, is to "shake the kaleidoscope of addition”, namely, to regroup all elements of human society and create " a fantastic and infinite array of tactics." These tactics are divided into three categories, i.e, "military, trans-military and non-military" as detailed in the following table:

Military	Trans-Military	Non-Military
Atomic warfare	Diplomatic warfare	Financial warfare
Conventional warfare	Network warfare	Trade warfare
Biochemical warfare	Intelligence warfare	Resources warfare
Ecological warfare	Psychological warfare	Economic aid warfare
Space warfare	Technological warfare	Regulatory warfare
Electronic warfare	Smuggling warfare	Sanction warfare
Guerrilla warfare	Drug warfare	Media warfare
Terrorist warfare	Virtual warfare (deterrence)	Ideological warfare

To implement “unrestricted warfare”, any item in the above table can be combined with one another as needed to form "combined tactics". The authors specifically pointed out in the note: "The three categories of operations here are real wars, not metaphors or descriptions." It is clear that according to them, there is only one relationship in human society: war.  The existence of all materials in human civilization has only one significance: to be used for war. This fits very well in the CCP’s line of thinking.

There is no doubt that the United States is the simulated enemy against whom the unrestricted warfare was formulated. For Chinese readers, China,  being the relatively weaker party compared with the United States in terms of   military technology and power  justifies tactics described in Unrestricted Warfare, since conventional tactics may not ensure victory against the US.   As the weaker party, the only way for China to win is to go beyond all limits. 

 After the book’s publication, it naturally attracted the attention of the US military and academia. Some military theorists and scholars published research papers and held academic conferences, but they seemed to regard it as just another battle tactic.  One paper I read dismissed it as inexecutable. However, the core of unrestricted warfare theory is not technical but ethical. It is to break the bottom line, abolish all the restrictions and limits, and do things that the other party cannot do to gain a unilateral advantage.  It is best described by an article published in a website named “Asian Century & The Rise of China”. In the article, the author, Liu Zhengzhi, was rhetorically asked this question: “What if the other party applies the same tactics to you and deprive your advantage?” This is his reply: “‘Restricted warfare’ is unique and stands alone. Such military strategy, tactic and methods can only be developed from the background of the Chinese Communist Party. Others won’t be able to copy it even if they want to.”

If you still cannot imagine how to play this ruleless game, let me tell you one story. Shortly   after the 9-11 terrorist attack, a friend from China visited me. This friend had been a longtime advocate for  reform and democracy in China. However, when we talked about the 9-11 attack, he frankly and heartily expressed his admiration for the planners and commanders. Killing 2996 people and inflicting heavy financial loss to the adversary country with a price of only 13 lives, said my friend,  was truly a model for the few to defeat the many and the week to defeat the strong by taking the advisory by surprise.   Most of all, it is impossible for the other side to hit back with the same method.

This is what “unrestricted warfare” is all about.

 Chinese version:  https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?SerialNo=86832

  

The Silent War Has Befallen

Among the crew members of a support ship for Cruise Police, an aircraft Carrier battle group on her way to protect oil platforms, was a physician named Daokete (Doug Kurt?). Having been sailing on the ocean for several months, Doug found the mission quite boring. One day, the ocean was nice and calm, while taking a stroll on the rear deck, Doug inadvertently glanced at the flag pole. On the top where the national banner was flying, he saw a golden-bellied frigate bird.  Doug didn’t give it much of thought.

In a regular briefing meeting a few days later, a disease prevention doctor complained that the biological defense system was unstable. Director of Nursing Department reported a sudden increase of patients requiring fluid infusion. Doug suddenly leapt to his feet: “That golden color bird...” He had been to all the major waters on the planet, and knew that this bird was not a species in their part of the world. In addition, they currently were sailing in the high seas, the frigate bird was not supposed to fly so far away from the shore. “Notify the fleet, “ Doug shouted, “we probably have been under a biological attack!”

In the following days, more than half of the personnel had respiratory infection symptoms, over one hundred had perished. To avoid spreading the disease, headquarters refused to transfer patients onshore for treatment. Hospital ship with biological protection capacity sailing nonstop to provide additional support to the carrier group.  Later, it was found out that a large flock of virus-infected birds had been released from a fishing vessel about 100 miles away from the carrier. Flying in the open sea, these birds had to find a place to rest. They landed on the fleet, the only objects the they were able to stop----and completely disabled the carrier combat group.

 The above is cited from Biotechnology Supremacy Warfare: Reconstructing Military Strategy for the New Era. The story is a scenario envisioned by Guo Jiwei, author of this book, for the future warfare he perceived.  It would be a truly underestimation if one takes the scenario as nothing but science fiction or a fantasy. Published in 2010 by Xinhua Publishing House, the highest-level publisher under Xinhua News Agency, it is in fact a book on military theory.  In China where press is under strict governmental control, published by Xinhua Publishing House indicates that the content of this book enjoys government sanction.

Guo Jiwei is a professor, chief physician and doctoral advisor of the Army Medical University, formally known as the Third Military Medical University of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Apparently, in addition to his medical practice and teaching career, he also has strong interest in military theory. In 2008, Guo published “Age of Biotechnology Supremacy: the Battlefield Here is Quiet”, a science-fiction-style essay in the November issue of "World Military Affairs", a popular biweekly magazine under the PLA branch of Xinhua News Agency. At the beginning of the article, Guo wrote:  "The combination of cutting-edge biotechnology and traditional weaponry is a major development trend for future warfare. The application of biotechnology in military struggles will lead to innovative breakthroughs in many aspects and even completely subvert the current concept of war. "

Two years later, Guo Jiwei published Biotechnological Supremacy Warfare: Reconstructing Military Strategy for the New Era. In this book, he formulated the concept “biotechnology supremacy warfare” .  This concept was inspired by the “unrestricted warfare” idea put forward by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui in their book published in 1999 with the same title.

Born in a military family in 1955, Qiao Liang was a military theorist, professor of the National Defense University, deputy secretary general of the National Security Policy Research Committee, and major general of the PLA Air Force. Qiao Liang wrote a preface for Guo Jiwei's book, highly praised his ideas and predictions about the future warfare. In fact, these are the discussions among a group of rising stars in mainland China's military circles regarding the strategies for the future warfare. These young and middle- age hawks will, if not already, become the dominant force in Chinese army and military strategic development.

In his preface, Qiao Liang appreciated Guo's argument that "the old warfare is gone, and the new one is yet to come." That is to say, the traditional technologies of human warfare are outdated, and future wars will emerge with new technologies and strategies. In this new situation, alternation between the old and the new will quietly wipe off the distinction between the advanced and the backward. When war breaks out, the strength and weakness will be switched overnight, the seemingly strong side will be become passive, and the originally weak side will be aggressive and become invincible.  This drastic change, however, does not have to be executed through the old warfare’s deafening sound of artillery explosions.   The game changing duel includes biotechnology, information, internet, public opinion and many other aspects. In short, the future warfare will be a "silent war." In fact, “biotechnological supremacy warfare” is an in-depth refinement of “unrestricted warfare.”

“Biotechnological Supremacy” is defined as “command of biotechology”, as opposed to such “old warfare” concepts as “command of the air” and “command of the sea.”  Guo further explains that this concept means “advanced command and application of military biotechnology to a micro-space- structure-based life in a defined period of time in future military operations and deterrence,” including effective use of various biotechnological attack and defense tactics, monitoring, maintaining and enhancing  vitality of military personnel,  protecting battlefield ecology and quality of life for one’s own troops.   Simply said, it is to apply biological weaponry in all directions against enemy meanwhile preserve one’s own military personnel. To achieve this, PLA must be in an advanced position in biochemistry and biochemical engineering, in developing and mastering advanced technologies in order to strike and defeat the enemy in the future warfare.

For most of us, such future warfare only exists in science fiction and movies. However, in mainland China, high rank PLA officers and strategists have been studying and discussing this for more than ten years.   They have been preparing themselves for this “new warfare”. In his book, Guo Jiwei envisioned the experience for Doug Kurt, the military physician at an aircraft carrier combat group, involved in a future war between two hostile countries.  As the enemy was caught off guard, "the laboratory's highly infectious virus escaped, a modern plague spread in a large area, causing huge damage in industrial and agricultural production and people’s way of life." Unfortunately, both countries involved in the war were not spared from the plague.

 When the book was published ten years ago, this description sounds like pure fantasy. However,  when we looking around at today’s world, in just a few months the "Wuhan pneumonia" (Covid-19), a highly contagious disease  started from Wuhan, the city where the now world-famous Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also known as the Wuhan P4 laboratory is located, has now spread to nearly the entire world.  Almost all countries in Europe, as well as the United States, have to declare lockdowns.  Thousands of innocent people lost their lives every day. Economic activities have been halted, schools closed, airplanes grounded ... Does Guo’s predictive description still sound like a science fiction or pure fantasy?

Moreover, when the virus hit, Europeans and Americans were surprised to find out that they did not have enough personal protective equipment available to protect their medical personnel and citizens. US President Trump had to activate the "Defense Production Act" passed in 1950 for the Korean War, using presidential wartime powers to expand facial mask and ventilator production to provide supply for medical personnel. Only under such an emergency situation did the American people learned that almost all of their domestic pharmaceutical production capacity had been transferred to China. The hard truth is, in the past decade or so, China has been quietly pursuing “biotechnology supremacy" and has achieved certain level of success.

This is Guo Jiwei's conclusion:  if you are caught in a future war and you are not prepared, nothing you can do other than simply surrender. "Certain highly targeted military striking points, such as biotechnology such as exogenous pathogenic gene transduction using biological vectors, nanoparticle targeted delivery technology, site-directed mutagenesis of gene functions, integration of gene gun metal ions with the host, biomarker tracking, have been fully developed.  Therefore, as far as the defense system is concerned, a wide range and a huge number of targets available in human genes or proteins can be used for attack.  This is like having a special lock, the attacker was the only one holding the key.  It is very difficult for the enemy to crack it in a short period of time. " In this case, the unprepared side has to give up resistance, and the highest commander admit: "Although we have built an unmatched thermal weapon force, due to our shortcomings in the critical field of biotechnology, we have only one option: end the war!"

If you still feel that this is just a story from science fiction, please read the following news: In April 13, 2020, Charles Robert Thacker Jr., Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer in USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, died from COVID-19.  Prior to this death, more than 500 officers and soldiers in USS Theodore Roosevelt were tested positive with the virus. The captain was removed from his post for breaking the news to media, and was later tested positive as well. So far, we have no idea how many in the aircraft carrier will be infected with or will die from the virus.

It took only ten years for Guo Jiwei’s perception to become a hard reality. 

Chinese version:  https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?SerialNo=85328