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
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