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BloombergBusinessweek November 18, 2019SofartheonlypeoplestartingtoexperienceWang’s
visionareBGIemployees.One,ZhuYanmei,describeshav-
inghergenomesequencedaftershejoinedthecompany
asheadofhumanresourcesin2012.A generallyhealthy
47-year-old,Zhuwasalarmedtolearnshemightbepre-
disposedtodevelopParkinson’sdisease.It wasthekindof
genomicknowledgethat’satoncesignificantandnotespe-
ciallyuseful:NodrugscanheadoffParkinson’s,andthere’s
onlylimitedevidencethatdietorexercisehavea preven-
tiveeffect.ButZhufiguredshehadtodosomething,soshe
beganmakingsmalladjustments to her routines. In partic-
ular, she started using chopsticks with her left hand instead
of her dominant right, a mental challenge that might in
some small way help forestall dementia, which is common
in Parkinson’s patients. If one day a preventive treatment
comes along, she’ll know to take it and to monitor the sci-
entific literature for relevant research.
Not everyone wants this kind of foreknowledge, but
Zhu says she’s confident that as sequencing becomes more
accepted, most people will. “The next step,” she says, “is
from million scale to billion scale”—led by China, where
things are “top to bottom” with “not so many discussions.”
She laughs. “One of our dreams is that everyone has an ID
card with their genome,” informing both medical and non-
medical choices throughout a lifetime.
To that end, BGI has proposed a plan to sequence the
genome of every baby born in Shenzhen, a city of more than
10 million. Doing this could provide valuable data, both for
individual health management and large-scale study. But it
would also raise serious privacy concerns. Asked whether
the state would have access to individuals’ genomes, Wang
demurs, arguing it’s not obvious what Chinese officials
would gain from them—after all, they have plenty of tools
to track citizens already. “Right now the Chinese govern-
ment is not seriously thinking about these kinds of things,”
he says. “It’s a little too early.” Current evidence suggests
otherwise. Human Rights Watch and other groups have criti-
cized China for systematically collecting genetic information
from members of the Uighur minority without proper con-
sent, and the national DNA database for law enforcement
is the world’s largest. (BGI says it has strict procedures to
protect patients’ privacy and adheres to international eth-
ical standards.)Wang is accustomed to controversy. Last year he attracted
a flurry of attention for saying it would be a “disgrace” for
anyofhisemployeestohavea childwitha birthdefect,
whichwouldindicatea failuretouseBGI’spre-
natalteststoruleoutproblems—orto
act accordingly.
In the interview, he arguesfor
similar vigilance on a national
scale. “China has 85 million
disabled [people], and
70 to 80% of these dis-
abilities are from birth
defects,” he says. “We
can really prevent this.
We can do premarriage
testing”—to flag rela-
tionships in which part-
ners carry a worrisome
combination of genes—
“and prepregnant, prena-
tal.” He acknowledges that
such ideas might sound alarm-
ing but predicts that, giventhe
option, most potential parents
will vote with their feet,soto
speak: “People make theirown
choice.” Wang argues thatper-
ceptions Chinese scientistsare
too aggressive stem in large
part from envy and echocrit-
icisms directed at rising powers
throughout history. “Whenpeo-
ple grow up and get big muscles,the
olderbrother’snothappywiththat,”hesays.
“AfterWorldWarII,Europeanpeoplelookedatthe
Americansandsaidthesamething—‘Youcowboys.’”
There are limits to what Wang says he’s prepared to con-
template. The company, he points out, is no longer study-
ing the genetic origins of intelligence. But he suggests that,
if researchers are able to truly identify genes that produce
smarts, a Gattaca-esque push for designer babies is proba-
bly inevitable, especially in ultracompetitive China, where
there’s already a robust market for genetic tests that sup-
posedly gauge innate talent for math or music. BGI has no
plans to help parents customize their offspring, but “there’s
lots of people who want to do it,” Wang says. “People never
stop searching for interesting things.” Unless, that is, some-
one stops them.Last November, as thousands of scientists arrived in Hong
Kong for a conference on gene editing, a Chinese doctor
named He Jiankui made a stunning announcement. Weeks
before, He said, the world’s first genetically engineered babies
had been born on the mainland. Working in secret, he’d used
DNA tests available to employees CRISPR, the powerful gene-editing tool, to alter the DNA of