The National Security Committee on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) issued a harsh warning. The US risks falling behind China in key areas of biotechnology. In its final report to Congress, the bipartisan committee of national security officials seeks a comprehensive national strategy and a minimum investment of $15 billion over the next five years.
Race with China
NSCEB's final 2025 report begins with prophecy, not warning.
We stand at the edge of the new industrial revolution that relies on our ability to design biology. Coupled with artificial intelligence, new biotechnology will change everything from the way we advocate for our nation and provide nutrition and care for Americans.
This philosophy almost verbatim reflects the vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution's World Economic Forum, a future where the physical, digital and biological worlds are merged. What WEF calls “a new chapter in human development” has once again left the committee as a zero-sum contest for national survival.
China is using all its tools at its disposal to replace the US as a global leader in biotechnology.
Report details:
China has invested heavily in gene editing, bionic robots, human machine teams and biomanufacturing, targeting these technologies for military applications.
The committee argues that the US must go big to defeat China. Smarter. Faster. Fatal. The path forward is to build better biotechnology, including war, before others do so.
“This contest will shape the security of our country, the strength of our economy and the happiness of our people,” the report emphasizes.
I didn't act
The committee warns that if the US gives away the basis for biotechnology, it could in that term be “devastating.”
We will provide an overview of four scenarios: “attack”, “destroy”, “hungry”, and “harm”. There, the enemy changes biology to American homeland.
Genetically enhanced soldiers combined with brain computer interfaces could defeat the US military before making a decision.
Designed microorganisms can gently decompose bridges and roads, causing accidental structural collapse.
The weaponized crop pathogens can cripple American agriculture, raise food prices and clear store shelves.
And amid a massive conflict, we were able to find that the United States is being detached from basic medicines. Most of them are now imported from China.
Important recommendations
This report outlines a drastic six-pillar strategy to ensure US dominance in biotechnology. The recommendations range from federal restructuring and capital deployment to battlefield integration and coordinating alliances. Together, they represent a blueprint for full-spectrum domination in synthetic biology.
Prioritize biotechnology at the national level
The committee is seeking centralized authority over the US biotech agenda.
Congress must establish the National Biotechnology Coordination Office (NBCO) in the President's Executive Office to coordinate interagency actions regarding biotechnology competition and regulation.
Every five years, NBCO publishes its National Biotechnology Strategy and oversees what the report calls “a national-wide initiative to promote biotechnology for food, health, the economy and national securities.” Last week, laws were introduced to establish an office.
Mobilize the market
China supports biotech companies with direct support from the state. The committee argues that the United States must counter this – not by copying it, but by unlocking private capital for national purposes.
Identify regulatory deficits, stagnant capital, and insufficient scale-up capabilities as structural liability. Without intervention, the US biotech sector continues to develop commercially and is strategically exposed.
Congress must establish and fund independent investment funds. It will invest in technology startups that will enhance national and economic security in the United States.
The report requires simpler regulatory pathways and removal of “familiar products” barriers. This is an undefined term. However, in the context, this probably refers to mRNA-based therapies and genetically modified crops already on the market. They also want a national network of bioindustry scale-up facilities built by the energy and commercial sectors.
To protect critical assets, the committee advocates the reclassification of biotechnology infrastructure and data as “critical infrastructure.”
It also recommends disclosure requirements for foreign supply chain dependencies and bans federal contractors in view of national security threats by Chinese biotech companies.
Weapon Biology
The battlefield is evolving, and biology is a new vector. However, the Department of Defense, which the commission warns, has warned, has failed to adapt as follows:
Congress must instruct the Department of Defense to consult with stakeholders to define principles regarding the ethical use of US military biotechnology.
But that ethical framework is just the beginning. The committee is calling for a national network of commercial biomanufacturing facilities to ensure an uninterrupted supply of mission-critical materials during the conflict.
It also calls for legal safeguards to prevent US capital from fueling foreign military biotech programs.
Congress should request outbound investment rules to ensure that US capital does not support the development of certain biotechnology in China.
Non-emerging strategic competitors
Innovation alone does not secure the future. The US must treat biological data as a strategic asset.
Congress should allow the Department of Energy to create a Web of Biological Data (WOBD), a single point of entry for researchers to access high-quality data.
This system ensures domestic control of sensitive data sets while protecting them against adversarial access.
Congress must implement oversight of existing policies…to prevent China from obtaining bulk and sensitive biological data from the United States.
To promote the frontier, the committee recommends establishing a centre for biotechnology within the National Institutes network to pursue what is called “magnificent research challenges.” Think of a Uhan style biolab near the metro area.
Future workforce
The committee identifies a dangerous gap between the biotechnology landscape and the human capital of the US government. The threat of the 21st century requires 21st century talent.
Congress must direct the Personnel Management Bureau to provide biotechnology workforce training across ministries.
This goes far beyond employment. We need to redesign the way federal agencies understand, regulate and advocate for biological systems.
Congress needs to maximize the impact of the domestic biomanufacturing workforce training programme.
In fact, the United States must train not only scientists but biological strategists.
Securing an alliance
The committee concludes with a global warning. That means biotechnology is the foundation of diplomacy, trade and war. Therefore, it must be protected not only within the United States, but among its allies.
Congress must include biotechnology within the scope of the State Department's International Technology Security and Innovation Fund to properly fund international biotech policy, research and development (R&D), and secure supply chains.
The report also calls for deeper integration with US allies, particularly NATO. In 2024, the Alliance announced its Biotechnology Strategy and began investing in dual-use technologies through its Defense Innovation Accelerator (DIANA) and NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). The committee structures the opportunity to “utilise shared resources” (capital, data, R&D) as an opportunity to advance the collective biotechnology frontier. In fact, architecture in a state of biosecurity is not only a citizen, but also a transatlantic ocean.
Deep state will be a mobile phone
The NSCEB presents its position as a bipartisan panel that will create a path to technical resilience. But the structure tells a different story. This is not a gathering of independent scientists or neutral policy experts. The committee stacks with veterans of intelligence, defense and surveillance states, namely individuals with deep institutional ties with the CIA, NSA and the Department of Defense. Among them were IN-Q-TEL executives, former national security officials, and 9/11 national security policy managers, who sought the fusion of intelligence, surveillance and emerging technologies under the banner of homeland defense.
In short, the same unelected class (commonly referred to as deep states) has spent decades expanding surveillance and eroding individual freedoms. He currently stands as a steward of American biotechnology.
So, rather than blindly charging the militarized biofuture of their designs, the only safe path is to reject its vision – by returning to the basic principles of a limited republic and initially normalize its relationship with the world in a way that would eliminate the need for such weapons races.
