(NewsNation) — China’s experimentation with creating supersoldiers is a “disturbing” reality, according to a former senior intelligence officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Nicholas Eftimiades joined “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” following comments from Sen. Mark Warner on China trying to create enhanced soldiers, a practice “right out of a science fiction film.”
“They’ve been exploring this concept for a while,” Eftimiades told NewsNation. “Can they modify human behavior, human physiology, to create, if you will, a more superior individual, physically as well as mentally?”
When asked if China is gene splicing or altering a person’s genetic background, Eftimiades said little is known about what China’s ideal specimen for battle looks like beyond research it claimed is “promising.”
“Other nations have explored in this area over decades. So it’s not the newest thing in the world, but the more disturbing part [is] we don’t know exactly how much effort they’re putting in towards it,” he said.
“We don’t know any of the accomplishments they’ve had towards it. We do know, which is disturbing, is that it’s under the People’s Liberation Army.”
During the inaugural Hill Nation Summit, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem talked about how China can shut down the electric grid or water systems in the United States. It follows a report from The Washington Post that found Chinese cyberattacks doubled in 2024 on the previous year.
Eftimiades says the U.S. must get on the offensive.
“Next time we detect a cyberhack from China, we kick some of their state-owned enterprises, multibillion-dollar state-owned enterprises, off the stock exchange and say, ‘You know what, no more investment from the United States period,'” he suggested.
“And we coordinate that with our allies as well. So there is some cost to China, because as of right now, there’s not.”