Science and Technology

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: The death of a Chinese child in a gene-editing trial sparks outrage, COVID-19 cases surge across China, and South Korea’s stock market plummets in response to Chinese chipmaking advances.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.

The highlights this week: The death of a Chinese child in a gene-editing trial sparks outrage, COVID-19 cases surge across China, and South Korea’s stock market plummets in response to Chinese chipmaking advances.

Fatal Gene-Editing Trial Sparks Outrage

A joint investigation by Science and Retraction Watch into the death of a Chinese child during a gene-editing trial—and the subsequent cover-up—has sparked outrage online.

Six-year-old Mei, a pseudonym, had a genetic defect that caused moderate learning difficulties. Her parents, a well-off professional couple, enrolled her in a gene-editing trial led by prominent neuroscientist Zilong Qiu at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, which is affiliated with the elite Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Mei died during the trial from a severe immune reaction after researchers ignored warning signs that had emerged in animal trials. Those involved in the trial concealed Mei’s death, omitting her data when they submitted a paper on the trial to Nature. After being stonewalled by the university and the hospital, Mei’s parents turned to Western media.

The story has received extensive coverage in Chinese media in the last few days, though it has not yet appeared in the most official outlets such as Xinhua or People’s Daily, suggesting that authorities are still deciding what the official response should be.

China is a rising leader in the field of biotechnology, though not yet the dominant power many expected a decade ago. At that time, Western firms and researchers were eager to partner with Chinese scientists, attracted by both generous state funding and what they perceived as a more permissive regulatory environment with fewer bioethical constraints.

That perception changed dramatically in 2018 with the He Jiankui scandal. A well-known scientist, He........

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