Chinese military’s work on marine toxins raising new fears of biological warfare weapons

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China’s military is conducting research on sea-based neurotoxins, raising fears among U.S. officials and analysts that Beijing is secretly developing deadly biological weapons for use in conflict.

The U.S. government aired concerns about marine toxin research for the first time this month in the annual State Department arms control compliance report.

The report said China “continued to engage in biological activities with potential [biological weapons] applications, including possible development of toxins for military purposes.” That raised concerns about Beijing’s compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which went into effect in 1975 and was ratified by China in 1984.

China was known to have developed germ weapons based on ricin, botulinum toxins, anthrax, cholera, plague and tularemia as part of a past biological arms program.

The disclosure of work on marine toxins is the first time Beijing has been accused of conducting that type of strategic weapons research.

“The PLA’s research organizations have been conducting and directing military research related to dual-use marine toxins,” the report said.

The State Department said China’s regular reports to other signatories of the Biological Weapons Convention and Beijing’s “confidence-building measures” failed to include information about the military marine toxin research.

Naturally occurring marine toxins are among the world’s most potent poisons. They attack the central nervous system and can be lethal in tiny amounts.

Civilian research in China has focused on preventing marine toxin poisoning from seafood and shellfish. U.S. intelligence suspects the People’s Liberation Army is using the research for weapons development. The report did not identify the specific marine toxins that PLA research institutes are examining.

A Beijing-sponsored research report from March 2014 revealed the military potential of toxins, including three types of marine toxins. The report, published in the Journal of Applied Biomedicine, was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, a government organization.

It identified anatoxins, saxitoxins and tetrodotoxin as potential biological weapons.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu, asked about the State Department findings, said Beijing has “noted the reports.” He dismissed the compliance report’s finding as false and part of a U.S. geopolitical agenda of producing threats to create a pretext for containing other countries.

“The U.S.’s false narratives and moves to stoke confrontation seriously jeopardize the biosecurity governance system with the Biological Weapons Convention as the cornerstone and the global response to biosecurity risks and challenges,” he said.

Compliance questions

A State Department official told The Washington Times that the United States believes China is conducting activities with potential biological weapons applications that raise concerns over compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention.

Although China signed on to the convention in 1984, it has never fully disclosed details regarding its past weapons programs as required, the report said.

China halted talks with the United States on chemical and biological weapons after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

“While it is unfortunate that the PRC has postponed previous regular bilateral chemical and biological weapons-related consultations since 2020, we continue to press them on these matters in other meetings,” said the U.S. official, speaking on background.

Another official familiar with the issue said the U.S. government has known about China’s military research on marine toxins for years but has kept it secret until the latest compliance report.

James Madsen, a director of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, said during a conference in 2019 that China is a world leader in toxin-based threats.

“China knows more about marine toxins in particular than any other country in the world,” said Mr. Madsen, who is now retired. He declined to comment further when asked about the Chinese marine toxin threats.

The State Department official said the United States is continuing work with partners to address questionable Chinese chemical and biological activities. The goal is to raise awareness of the threat and build diplomatic pressure on Beijing to provide answers, the official said.

Thomas DiNanno, an arms control official during the Trump administration, said the State Department failed to press the Chinese on the marine toxin work.

“Our plan was to ask some hard questions regarding their program of potential dual-use research,” said Mr. DiNanno, who was assistant secretary of state of the arms control, verification and compliance bureau from 2018 to 2021.

“It looks like the Biden administration chose to just ignore it as too hard or too controversial. Either way, it is not good,” he said.

Expanding the program

The PLA Academy of Military Medical Sciences is the primary Chinese military organization in charge of biological defense work. The Commerce Department sanctioned the academy and 10 subordinate institutes in 2021.

Those sanctions, however, were related to military work on what the federal government said was PLA “brain-control weaponry” and not marine toxins.

Ryan Clarke, an expert on Chinese biological weapons at the National University of Singapore, said the disclosure of possible PLA marine toxin weaponization is significant. “It clearly indicates the continued expansion of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] bioweapons program,” he said.

“It also likely indicates that the CCP is increasing its focus on its uniformed armed wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), to develop battlefield bioweapons applications.”

Mr. Clarke, co-founder of the CCP BioThreats Initiative, said bioweapons development and deployment in China used clandestine networks until recently.

“While this approach will continue, the increased involvement of the conventional PLA demonstrates that Beijing views bioweapons as core elements of the CCP’s standard order of battle. We are directly observing an escalatory process,” he said.

A recent report by the BioThreats Initiative based on open-source information obtained in China revealed that the PLA is engaged in secret biological weapons development, which is a key part of Beijing’s asymmetric warfare strategy.

The report provided new details on PLA biological weapons efforts that researchers say control all civilian biological research in China.

“Bioweapons are part of the CCP’s standard order of battle; not an unconventional set of capabilities only to be used under extreme circumstances,” the report states.

“The Science of Military Strategy,” an authoritative PLA textbook, includes a section identifying biology as a domain for military struggle. The book mentions the potential for new types of biological warfare to include “specific ethnic genetic attacks” designed to affect targeted ethnic groups.

Military ‘potential’

The Chinese-sponsored scientific report said anatoxins are neurotoxins produced by blue-green algae and “the potential use of anatoxins as a military weapon is very high.”

Saxitoxins are potent neurotoxins known as highly potent paralytic shellfish poisons. “Humans have died after ingesting as little as 1 mg of toxin,” the report said.

Tetrodotoxin, known as TTX, is a potent neurotoxin first isolated from puffer fish and found in other marine organisms, including some species of octopuses, sea stars and crabs.

“There is no report of using TTX as a bioweapon, but due to its high toxicity, its potential as a weapon of terror cannot be discounted,” the report said.

China is also suspected of developing biological weapons from maitotoxin, or MTX, which has been described as the most potent marine toxin known, an intelligence source said. It is produced by algae.

The Pentagon’s 2023 Biodefense Posture Review mentions the threat of biological weapons, including marine toxins, and concerns about China’s biological warfare research.

Chinese publications “have called biology a new domain of war,” the report said.

U.S. and Chinese officials are expected to discuss the issue in August at a Geneva meeting of the working group on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention.

The United States appears to have used marine toxins during the Cold War. The CIA developed a marine toxin from clams, according to documents obtained by Patricia A. Tester, an ocean researcher.

Ms. Tester stated in a report she co-authored that documents from the Cold War uncovered at a military base in Alaska revealed that the CIA used Alaskan clams to obtain saxitoxin as a replacement for its cyanide L-pills. The cyanide pills were issued to clandestine intelligence officers for use in preventing capture.

U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers carried a saxitoxin-laced needle inside a hollowed-out silver dollar that was to be used to kill himself if he was captured, the report said. Powers was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile over Russia but did not use the needle. The Russians suspected it was tipped with curare.

Senate hearings from 1975 confirmed the CIA’s planned use of saxitoxin, the report said.

The United States destroyed its biological weapons under the Biological Weapons Convention, and the annual report said Washington announced that all its activities for biological defense last year were legal under the convention.

Russia’s government has accused the United States in Biological Weapons Convention channels of working illicitly on biological weapons efforts through laboratories in Ukraine. The State Department has denied the charge.