On April 8, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued an announcement that it had added seven Chinese supercomputer entities to the Department’s blacklist for their involvement in the construction of supercomputers used by the Communist Party’s military, as well as their involvement in Communist Party efforts to undermine military modernization and/or their involvement in the Communist Party’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program, which is clearly contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests run counter to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.
The seven companies are Tianjin Feiteng Information Technology Company Limited, Shanghai Integrated Circuit Technology and Industry Promotion Center, Shenzhen Xinwei Microelectronics Company Limited, National Supercomputing Center Jinan, National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, National Supercomputing Center Wuxi, and National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou. The above companies and centers are prohibited from purchasing U.S. components without U.S. government approval. The sanctions are effective immediately, but do not apply to U.S. supplier goods already en route.
In fact, back in June 2019, the Department of Commerce under the Trump administration added four Chinese technology companies and a Communist Party government-owned institute to the list of U.S. export control entities because they were used as part of China’s development of supercomputers that were used for military purposes or in connection with collaboration with the Communist Party’s military, jeopardizing U.S. national security.
While both administrations have targeted Chinese supercomputing companies and centers, it is worth noting that, in a slight departure from the previous sanctions language, this time the U.S. Department of Commerce added the additional reason “(these entities) and/or participation in the CCP’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. What is the intent of this?
According to Wikipedia, the term WMD first appeared in 1937 and refers to strategic weapons of mass destruction and devastation on a regional scale, not necessarily limited to a specific military or people. In today’s world, weapons of mass destruction usually refer to the following four types: chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.
Since the manufacture of chemical and reflex weapons does not require supercomputers for large-scale computing, it is in the manufacture of nuclear and biological weapons that supercomputers can be useful.
In October 2018, an article in the mainland media, “The Unavoidable “Battle of Supercomputing” by Great Powers”, revealed that in weapons development, supercomputers, with their powerful computing power, can simulate experimental sessions, analyze the resulting data, and correct possible errors, brilliantly completing the work that human engineers have been doing for years or even a decade. The supercomputer can do the work that human engineers can’t finish for years or even a decade.
In addition, supercomputers will not only be used on a large scale for nuclear weapons R&D and maintenance, numerical wind tunnel simulation, genetic weapons research, and war computing simulation, but will also have a significant impact on military doctrine, tactical application, and even warfare patterns, for example, unmanned aircraft and robotic forces will become the main force on the battlefield, and the combat platforms, weapons systems, command and control systems, and integrated security systems of each military service will be linked into one. The “single fighter” will be replaced by a system of confrontation, and so on.
However, the development of nuclear weapons, a military secret, is usually handled by the military’s internal computer staff and is not easily delivered to outside companies, even if they cooperate with the military. Moreover, it is no secret that the Chinese Communist Party has long possessed and developed nuclear weapons, and the reasons for this sanction should have little to do with nuclear weapons.
The most likely reason behind the sanctions, then, is that the seven entities are involved in helping the military create biological weapons, especially at a time when viruses are killing millions and their traceability is a worldwide concern.
In mid-January, the U.S. State Department released a fact-checking report on what the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research had done. The report first determined that the virus came from China and that the Chinese Communist Party had lied to the world about the virus and the outbreak. Second, the report again provided corroborating evidence that the CCP virus came from its laboratories by analyzing research conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research.
The report alleges that since at least 2016, Wuhan Virus Institute researchers conducted experiments involving RaTG13 and showed no signs of stopping before the COVID-19 outbreak; RaTG13 was the bat coronavirus identified by the Institute in January 2020 as the closest to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similar). After the SARS outbreak in 2003, the Institute became the focus of international coronavirus research and has been studying animals including mice, bats, and pangolins since then. As such, the Institute has a public record of conducting “gene function acquisition” studies to engineer chimeric viruses. This certainly implies that the virus has the ability to make viruses.
Third, the report also notes that the Wuhan Virus Institute is engaged in clandestine military activities. The report states that despite Beijing’s clear obligations under the BWC, Beijing has neither documented nor clearly demonstrated its intention to eliminate such weapons. Moreover, the U.S. has confirmed that the institute has collaborated with the CCP military on publications and secret research projects, including animal testing in laboratories, which are also supported by U.S. donors. This is supposed to imply that Beijing has violated the BWC.
While Beijing continues to deny the U.S. allegations and continues to find ways to defend itself in every way possible, the revelations so far show that there is a growing consensus among governments about whether the virus came from the Wuhan virus lab, and the disagreement is whether the virus was an intentional release of a manufactured biological weapon or a man-made leak.
The core topic of the April 2020 CCF YOCSEF Tianjin session was how supercomputing can play a role as a “national weapon” in the “war against epidemics”.
Yang Yuedong, Deputy Chief Engineer of National Supercomputing Center Guangzhou, gave a presentation on “Tianhe-2 Intelligent Health Medicine Platform and Anti-epidemic Applications”. He shared the research and development of intelligent health and medicine algorithms and a series of applications in the fight against epidemics at the National Supercomputing Center Guangzhou.
Professor Peng Shaoliang, Deputy Director of National Supercomputing Changsha Center, gave a presentation on “Supercomputing-based Artificial Intelligence Anti-epidemic Big Data Platform”, which mentioned several computing systems, including supercomputing-based artificial intelligence pathogen detection and antiviral drug repositioning big data platform, clinical and social network big data-based Artificial intelligence visualization active epidemic prevention safety network, etc.
Dr. Huang Xiaohui, Director of the Application and Promotion Department of the National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, gave a presentation on “Joint Supercomputing Warfare in Epidemic Situations”, mentioning the achievements of the Shenzhen Center in virus spread simulation and gene sequencing processing.
According to mainland media reports, the Tianjin Tianhe series supercomputers have played an important role in high-throughput virtual drug screening, biomolecular dynamics simulation, whole-genome sequencing analysis and 3D cryoelectron microscopy data processing of biomolecules. The supercomputers can reportedly be used for analysis and storage of computational biology, systems biology, structural biology, clinical histology data, technology development, and to assist public health centers in virus screening, viral strain isolation, and vaccine development.
Although the mainland media reported the role of supercomputers in the aftermath of the epidemic, from the information it revealed, did it also conduct simulations and provide reference for the top echelons of the Communist Party of China in the early stages of vaccine development, gene sequencing, virus screening, strain isolation and even the impact of the spread of the epidemic?
Perhaps, the U.S. sanctions against the seven supercomputing entities were introduced because it found something fishy behind this, and therefore added “(these entities) and/or participation in the CCP’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program” to the statement of reasons. Does this imply that the U.S. has caught solid evidence that the virus came from the Wuhan lab and is linked to the CCP military? It may be worth waiting a little longer for the truth to emerge.
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