Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe included that explosive claim in a long Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he made the case that China poses the preeminent national security threat to the U.S. “There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power,” wrote Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas. His office, and the CIA, did not immediately respond to requests to elaborate on the notion that China sought to create “super soldiers,” of the sort depicted in Hollywood films such as Captain America, Bloodshot and Universal Soldier.
Last year, two American scholars wrote a paper examining China’s ambitions to apply biotechnology to the battlefield, including what they said were signs that China was interested in using gene-editing technology to enhance human — and perhaps soldier — performance.
