WARY OF THE DRAGON
Biotech appears to be a new turf of rivalry between the US and China. Politics has bearings on every aspect of human life. Technology is no exception as it is being witnessed in the recent developments in the US. Alarmed over the US’s entire dependence on China for its biotech supply chain, the former’s failure to compete with China in biotechnology and the possession of Americans’ genomic data with the Chinese biotech companies, the US lawmakers have initiated legislative steps over the risk to national security and commercial interests caused by Chinese biotech companies.
In March, the US Senate’s Homeland Security committee approved forwarding a Bill restricting business with Chinese biotech companies citing national security concerns. Before that, a similar Bill was moved in the US Congress in January seeking to ban federally funded medical providers from using the services of any Chinese biotech company, particularly BGI Group, MGI and WuXi AppTec from accessing genetic information of American people. The Bill was moved by two leading members of the Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Members from both sides, Republicans and Democrats, are together on this particular issue. The legislative approach would include vetting inbound investments, barring federal contracts with designated Chinese firms, curbing outbound investments in China’s biotech supply chain and applying export controls. Thus, the passing of the Bills would effectively ban Chinese companies from the US.
Before that, in February, members of the same committee wrote a letter demanding sanctions specifically against WuXi AppTec, a multinational biotech and medical devices company headquartered in Shanghai. The company has ties to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and hence represents a threat to national security, the members alleged.
Even a report by the Centre for a New American Security in August 2022 called “Regenerate: Biotechnology and US Industrial Policy”, mentioned that the US is at a relative disadvantage in biotechnology compared to China and other rivals, “ceding American leadership over one of the most powerful and transformative fields of technology in recent memory.”
But, a major concern of the US lawmakers is that some of the companies are involved in genome sequencing. They feel that handing over the genetic data to these companies constitutes a national security risk due to CCP’s legal ability to view private data held by any companies based in its territory. A member of the committee on CCP expressed fears that such data could be used to develop bioweapons against Americans. WuXi AppTec has denied the allegations and has said that it has a strong track record of upholding the highest intellectual property, data and privacy protection standards and maintaining the trust of customers. Even BGI has denied the allegations.
The US and China reportedly share strong biotech ties with China’s role in the entire biotech supply chain, from research to sales of products. Understanding biotechnology’s strength in revolutionising the life sciences, is now the focus of the conflict. Going by the nature of the current relationship between the US and Chinese biotech companies, experts feel that the legislative actions could disrupt key relationships and supply chains of the US life sciences companies and would ultimately hurt the US. This could damage the drug development supply chain. The policymakers would get too obsessed with the technology’s military applications at the cost of hindering efforts to cure disease, opined Abigail Coplin, an assistant professor at Vassar College specialising in China's biotech industry.
Though the US lawmakers' concern over the Chinese biotech companies having the genetic data of Americans is right on the issue of national security and needs some protective actions, they also need to remember what American writer and researcher Evgeny Morozov said about technology. He said, “The global triumph of American technology has been predicted on the implicit separation between the business interest of Silicon Valley and the political interests of Washington.”