http://www.bjreview.com MARCH 26, 2020 BEIJING REVIEW 25
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
Comments to liTing#bjreview.comNATION
such as clarifying the responsibilities of dif-
ferent parties, Yu told The Beijing News.
In recent years, several laws and regula-
tions related to biosecurity have come up,
such as the Food Safety Law, the Seed Law
and the Environmental Protection Law.
However, while they provide reference for ad-
dressing biosecurity problems, they lack the
mechanism that a more comprehensive law
in the field should have to ensure effective
implementation, Chang Jiwen, a researcher
at the Development Research Center of the
State Council, told Beijing-based Legal Weekly.
Today, the obstacles have been re-
moved. In plant Tuarantine, for example, the
General Administration of Customs of China,
the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
and the National Forestry and Grassland
Administration have their clearly deĶ ned func-
tions. “Coordination in the inspection and
Tuarantine mechanism will be improved with
the new law,” Pan said.
Addressing ethical concerns
The bottom line of the biosecurity law is to set
up ethical norms and precautionary principles,
according to Du Qun, a professor of Beihang
University. Du told The Beijing News that
biotechnology should be a focus and its devel-
opment, application, and products should be
regulated.
“Scientists’ instinct is to explore the
unknown world. But they should also follow
the ethical principles of scientific research,
remembering their responsibility to protect
society,” Du said. “Many biotechnology issues
lack legislative restriction, such as the de-
velopment and utilization of biological gene
statistics, the protection of genetic resources
and genome manipulation, as well as labora-
tory management and norms for scientists.”
Without such regulations, operators at
laboratories are left vulnerable to infections and
toxic viruses that can leak out during experi-
ments. “So it is necessary to build scientific
ethics in laboratories,” she said, adding that the
biosecurity law would provide a strict standard
for using advanced biological technologies.
To ensure overall safety, each link in the
work of laboratories should be safe, from site
selection to experiments, to tracing ways of
contact between laboratories and the public,
she said.
Also, the law is expected to clarify the scope
of synthetic biology, the science that creates
new biological systems, and regulate the appli-
cation of gene-editing technology.
“The healthy growth of modern biotechnol-
ogy is conducive to social progress,” Yu said.
A global issue
The global biosecurity situation is very seri-
ous today with biological threats showing
new characteristics, He Fuchu, an academi-
cian of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
wrote in Qiushi, a bimonthly periodical
published by the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of China. Pathogens
such as the novel coronavirus are spread-
ing across species and regions, causing
new infectious diseases and public health
emergencies.
In the past two plus months, the novel
coronavirus has spread to many countries and
regions, forcing several cities to lock down and
people to stop many social activities.
“More than 200,000 cases of the novel
coronavirus disease have been reported to
the World Health Organization (WHO), and
more than 8,000 people have lost their lives,”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director
General, said on March 18.
There are also natural disasters caused by
living things, posing common problems for the
world.
On January 31, the Pakistani Government
declared a national emergency triggered by
locusts that invaded the eastern part of the
country. The pest has infested several coun-
tries in Africa and South Asia, causing crop
failure.
Invasive species have also caused prob-
lems in China. Invasive plants could bring great
harm to the local ecological environment and
the national economy, Li XiangTin, a research-
er with a key laboratory working on plant
conservation and ecological restoration underthe Guangxi Institute of Biology in Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, said.
A survey conducted by Li’s laboratory
found 121 species of invasive plants in the re-
gion bordering Viet Nam. Of these species, 23
are seriously harmful, 32 moderately harmful
and 66 slightly harmful. The Ķ nding was pub-
lished in the Journal of Biosafety, a publication
of Fujian Agriculture and Forest University.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment
has released lists of invasive species. The
ministry recently said preventive and control
measures have been taken in several na-
ture reserves, including one on Shanghai’s
Chongming Island and another on Qi’ao Island
in Guangdong Province.
Many biological hazards need to be tack-
led through international cooperation. China
has ratified several international agreements
on biotechnology safety, for instance, the
UN Biological Weapons Convention, the UN
Convention on Biological Diversity and the
International Convention for the Protection of
New Varieties of Plants.
China’s biosecurity law is also aimed at
promoting international communication
and cooperation and contributing to build-
ing a community with a shared future for
humanity. QA technician at the Sichuan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau observes an enlarged image of
a leaf-cutter ant on April 18, 2016. Such live ants being smuggled in by express mail were intercepted at
an airport in southeast ChinaXIN
HU
A