AP Exclusive: First gene-edited babies claimed in China

As with a lot of Chinese claims, this should probably be taken with a grain of salt. But if anyone *was* to create genetically modified children, you can bet it would be the Chinese.

The claim is that twin girls have been modified in vitro not to correct genetic flaws, but to improve the breed: they have modifications to make them resistant to diseases such as AIDS. This sort of thing is considered unethical in the West… but this is China.  If this claim turns out to be true *and* the process worked, expect to see a lot more of it, not only in China, but everywhere else. A “genetic arms race” will presumably ensue… nations will have to keep up out of fear that the other guy will make superior future generations. Resistance to AIDS, for example, sounds nice, but a general resistance to viral infections would not only make – presumably – a healthier, stronger and more economically productive population, it would also make a population that would be resistant to viral bio weapons. If the Chinese populace was largely immune to  some modified strain of bird flu, for example, it would be a distinct temptation for such a flu to magically appear around the world.