Original: How Tiny Genes Trigger a Biosecurity "Tornado"
A butterfly in the Amazon rainforest of South America, with an occasional flap of its wings, can cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later, known as the "butterfly effect". And seemingly inconspicuous things such as a hair, a piece of skin tissue, a small insect, and a seed can also induce the "butterfly effect" and trigger a "tornado" of biosecurity.
| Who "weaponized" genetic resources? |
With the development and progress of science and technology, gene technology, as an emerging technology, has sprung up in the field of biotechnology and has played an important role in human scientific research and disease treatment. However, some countries have "armed" genetic technology into a lethal weapon for ulterior purposes.
99.7 to 99.9 percent of human DNA is the same, and the difference in the proportion is the key to distinguishing the races. If there are sufficient samples of human genetics, scientists will be able to analyze and grasp the unique genetic characteristics of each ethnic group and race. If used by individuals or organizations with ulterior motives, it may even be used to develop genetic weapons that kill and injure targets of a predetermined race, thereby selectively attacking targets with specific racial genes.
Compared with traditional biological and chemical weapons, genetic weapons are more concealed, deceptive, proliferating, and long-term harmful, and are difficult to prevent, difficult to isolate, and low cost.
| And who is doing everything possible to steal species resources? |
Species resources, which refer to all living organisms on the earth, are of great significance to every country. Once a country's endemic species resources are lost, it will be transmitted to economic security, food security, ecological security and other fields, resulting in irreversible losses.
In addition to targeting the genetic resources of the mainland's human race, some foreign institutions, organizations, and personnel are also within the scope of their target for stealing secrets. Any species or an individual organism preserves a large number of genes, and biological species resources are the cornerstone of sustainable economic and social development, as well as an important guarantee of national ecological security.
In one case involving the field of biosecurity, the state security authorities discovered that a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO) had recruited volunteers on the mainland in the name of conducting research on biological species, wantonly collected data on the distribution of biological species in various places, and required participants to upload the collected data through a special mobile phone software. In fact, the foreign NGO not only has a government background of a certain country, but the relevant data it collects has also been continuously transmitted abroad, causing potential harm to the mainland's biological and ecological security.
| Everyone can be a biosecurity "guardian" |
General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that biosecurity is related to people's lives and health, long-term peace and stability of the country, and the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.
At present, the mainland is constantly establishing and improving laws and regulations related to biosecurity. On October 17, 2020, the 22nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China, marking that the mainland has raised the importance of biosecurity to an unprecedented new height, providing important legal support for the prevention and resolution of biosecurity risks in the mainland, and effectively ensuring the modernization of the national biosecurity system and capabilities.
Biosecurity is related to everyone and me, and maintaining biosecurity is the common responsibility of the whole society. Everyone should establish an awareness of biosecurity, draw wisdom from the lessons learned in responding to biosecurity risks such as public health incidents, take up the "sword" and "shield", take the initiative to prevent it, do what "I" can, be the "guardian" of their own life, health and safety, and jointly build a strong line of defense for biosecurity.
Source: Ministry of State Security