China is working to develop an integrated biobank system as it attempts to challenge Western dominance of the trillion-dollar global bioresearch sector, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The push comes as the US and European nations have begun excluding Chinese scientists from accessing some of its most sensitive databases for research and have limited China's participation in international collaborations.
In the past, biomedical data was widely and freely shared among scientists around the world. However, it is now increasingly considered a matter of national security that governments guard.
The US, last year, blocked researchers from China and five other countries from accessing 21 biomedical datasets and restricted some Chinese biotechnology companies from government-funded contracts.
The argument behind the move was that some of the world's most advanced genetic information could be exploited to threaten national security and public health.
In February, the European Union barred Chinese organizations from participating in Horizon Europe, a €93.5-billion ($110-billion) funding program as several British politicians raised concerns about the use of its biobank data by Chinese researchers.
Beijing's biobank push could accelerate the advance of biotechnology companies and strengthen the country's place as a global innovation powerhouse. However, the process is complex and could take several years to yield results.
According to Vikram Venkatram, a research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, the concept of biodata as a strategic resource has been growing in the US, especially as competition with China over biotechnology and bioeconomy has grown.
Chinese scientists say the restrictions have already interrupted some research, but that the full implications are not yet clear.
China has already begun to protect its own nascent databases, approving a biosecurity law in 2020 that placed stricter controls on the collection, storage and overseas transfer of genetic data.
Beijing launched its efforts in developing an integrated biobank system later than most other major economies, leaving it heavily dependent on Western data for its recent scientific discoveries, such as ways to predict dementia with a simple drop of blood, drugs to treat strokes and early diagnostic tools for colorectal cancer.
