Why should China share with US especially such sensitive area of genetic material. Beside, the US has blocked semiconductor, AI and quantum collaboration when the US has advantages but thinks it has the rights to access Chinese technology when it is in a disadvantage situation.
The national survey and restrictions on foreign access are part of new regulations on China’s genetic resources, which came into effect in July.
However, some experts have warned that this genetic hoarding could make global research cooperation more difficult – and potentially backfire on China.
“The government wants to have a very tight hand in this area as they realize this has a huge economic potential, but … China needs international collaboration to realize that potential,” said Joy Y. Zhang, director of the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice. Zhang attended consultation meetings during the drafting of the new regulations.
“Currently you’re just having a gold mine right at your door, but you actually don’t know how to mine it,” she said.
“China has amassed the largest genomic holdings of anywhere in the world,” Anna Puglisi, director of biotechnology programs at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, told a
on national security in 2021.
With DNA increasingly seen as a valuable natural resource like oil or land, China is keen to protect its people’s genes – to the alarm of some scientists who fear the loss of international collaboration.
The initial 2019 regulations forbade foreign entities from collecting Chinese genetic material or providing that material abroad, largely to prevent them from using it for “typical commercial purposes” such as genomic sequencing services, Wang said.
Though research collaborations like clinical studies are still allowed, they face much tighter scrutiny, with “foreign parties” and their Chinese partners required to notify the authorities and receive governmental approval – with the new regulations including additional details on this process and stipulations for mandatory security reviews in certain circumstances.
The changes come alongside an increasing emphasis on national security under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with Beijing ramping up laws across a range of priority concerns from counter-espionage to biosecurity.
The approach on human genetic resources is so stringent it “basically grants exclusive access to Chinese nationals based in China to conduct this research,” said Zhang, the global science center director.