By Dr. Badra Gaaloul, President of the International Center for Strategic, Security, and Military Studies, Tunisia 09-01-2024

What can the United States do in the face of China’s staggering and monumental progress?

Penetrating China’s internal fabric or inciting civil unrest has become nearly impossible. Cyberwarfare is no longer an arena where the United States reigns supreme, in fact, it now fears cyberattacks on its own infrastructure. Militarily, the U.S. is no longer unrivaled, with Russia and China overtaking it in cutting-edge technology. Even in economic warfare, America’s dominance is waning.

Global experts and strategists are now discussing a terrifying new form of conflict: the sixth generation of warfare—the most dangerous and devastating to humanity. In an increasingly interconnected world, this warfare manifests as virus wars, the spread of lethal infectious diseases.

COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, a sprawling industrial hub in Hubei province, central China. But why Wuhan?

Key statistics reveal its strategic importance:

78% of China’s exports originate here.

33% of China’s GDP is linked to this region.

9% of global copper smelting occurs in Wuhan.

65% of China’s oil refining takes place here.

60% of steel production and 40% of coal output are concentrated in this city.

Such figures underscore Wuhan’s critical role in China’s economy, making it a prime target for disruption.

Speculation abounds that COVID-19 is not a natural occurrence but an artificial creation designed to cripple the global economy, starting with China. Curiously, the virus took months to significantly impact the United States.

Further fueling these theories is a 2018 U.S. patent for the coronavirus (Patent No. 10130701), originally filed for pharmaceutical research but now suspected of being weaponized for geopolitical ends.

Russian General Vladimir Slipchenko was the first to describe this form of warfare, emphasizing the use of precision weaponry and lethal biological agents capable of rendering traditional armies obsolete. Historical precedents include the use of synthetic viruses during the Gulf War and Iraq’s conflict in the 1990s.

Dr. Sayed Abdel-Ghani Mohamed’s book, The Struggle of Nations and Generational Wars, offers further insight into this evolving classification, with biological warfare now forming its deadly core.
Critics point to U.S. involvement in bioweapons, citing incidents like the closure of a military lab in Indonesia in 2010 due to secretive experiments with avian flu. This virus caused global panic but disappeared almost as quickly as it emerged, raising questions about its origins.

Months before COVID-19’s outbreak, former NATO Commander James Stavridis warned in Foreign Policy about biological weapons capable of killing a fifth of the global population, over 400 million people. Similarly, a Daily Mail report detailed a simulation by Johns Hopkins predicting a novel virus could claim 65 million lives within 18 months.
As COVID-19 spreads, China has suffered devastating losses, while U.S. pharmaceutical companies have reaped financial gains. Some suspect a deliberate bioterrorism campaign, though others argue that such acts could have global repercussions, including on the instigators themselves.
In the Arab and African worlds, the pandemic highlights inadequate healthcare systems and economic fragility. Are these nations prepared for a pandemic? With limited resources and reliance on imported goods, their vulnerabilities are stark.
Whether deliberate or incidental, COVID-19 has disrupted the global order, underscoring the dangers of biological warfare. Sixth-generation warfare, characterized by its low-cost, high-impact strategies, poses unprecedented challenges for humanity. In an interconnected world, no one is truly safe.