Pentagon Report Flags China's "Dual-Use Biological Activities"

China has engaged in biological activities with potential dual-use applications, which raise concerns regarding its compliance with the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Pentagon said in its recent report.

Studies conducted at PRC military medical institutions discussed identifying, testing, and characterizing diverse families of potent toxins with dual-use applications, said The Pentagon's report titled Military and Security Development Involving the People's Republic of China, 2021.

Based on available information, the US cannot certify that Beijing has met its obligations under the CWC due to concerns regarding China's research of pharmaceutical-based agents (PBAs) and toxins with potential dual-use applications, the 192-page report stated.

It also said that China is investing in, and expanding, the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces.

Beijing is also supporting this expansion by increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving China was released on Wednesday. China has long viewed the US as a competitor and has characterised its view of strategic competition in terms of a rivalry among powerful nation-states, as well as a clash of opposing systems, according to the report.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)