The Biden administration said Thursday it imposed trade restrictions on more than 30 Chinese research institutes and entities over human rights violations and the alleged development of technologies, such as brain-control weapons, that undermine U.S. national security. 

The Commerce Department accused China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes of using biotechnology "to support Chinese military end uses and end users, to include purported brain-control weaponry," according to a notice in the Federal Register.

The Washington Post had these interesting comments.

"The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. "Unfortunately, [China] is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups. We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security."

The State Department has deemed as "genocide" China's repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, which includes the use of forced labor and sterilization. The U.S. intelligence community has said that China has established a "high tech surveillance system" across Xinjiang "as part of its apparatus of oppression," said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.