It's important to note that this type of research was given the green light by the international community, however unwise that was. It seems that China was doing so in a Chernobyl-like fashion. That is inexcusable.
Important research doesn't absolve anyone of responsible conduct. I'm sitting in a lab right now stressing the fuck out about making a human use product perfect, because I don't want to risk giving one already really sick and likely to die person sepsis. IT LITERALLY KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT. If the consequence were global catastrophe instead of killing someone a week quicker than they were already dying, I like to hope I'd consider that pretty heavily.
Having grown up with megadeath, there's a set of mental gymnastics you can perform to keep your psyche limber enough for genocide. You start with some othering and follow it up with a heapin' helpin' of just-following-ordersism. You can also do some patriotism stretches whereby anything you do to increase your prowess on the battlefield is saving the lives of the only people who matter. The Chinese have always been the only people who matter. This is why the Opium Wars still scar their collective psyche: it was the first time in history that The Chosen Ones had their asses handed to them and everyone, from Chiang Kai-shek onwards, has based their foreign policy on the urgent and inevitable correction of the celestial order.