Overview

• China's Ministry of State Security alleged some countries have developed genetic weapons targeting specific ethnicities, specially Chinese population, although no evidence or further details were provided.
• The scientific community largely dismisses the existence of such weapons, with many experts suggesting these claims are political rather than based on credible scientific facts.
• Genetic, or ethnic, bio-weapons, if real, would be aimed at exploiting key genetic differences between ethnicities, according to some theories, though it's agreed that creating such weapons faces numerous technical challenges.
• The Biological Weapons Convention, of which China, Russia, and the United States are signatories, prohibits the development and use of such weapons, though the lack of a specific definition for a biological weapon can allow countries to exploit loopholes.
• Experts warn that advancements in DNA sequencing, artificial intelligence and collection of genetic data sets could potentially enable the identification of increasingly precise targets for a genetic weapon system, but the same experts universally agree that any application remains firmly in the realm of science fiction.