Better cancer treatments, advances in longevity, groundbreaking medicines and vaccines: these are just some of the potential prizes on offer in an emerging global race to advance the biosciences. And China has been pouring billions of dollars into its efforts to become the preeminent force, with experts claiming its massive population of 1.4 billion people can provide a treasure trove of data. Vast amounts of this data already exists in biobanks and research centers around the country – but the government is now launching a “national genetic survey” to collect information about and assert more oversight over these resources, say experts. In recent years, authorities have also been tightening controls around foreign access to this data – in contrast to the many Western nations that have pledged to open up information for global sharing. The national survey and restrictions on foreign access are part of new regulations on China’s genetic resources, which came into effect in July. However, some experts have warned that this genetic hoarding could make global research cooperation more difficult – and potentially backfire on China. “The government wants to have a very tight hand in this area as they realize this has a huge economic potential, but … China needs international collaboration to realize that potential,” said Joy Y. Zhang, director of the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice. Zhang attended consultation meetings during the drafting of the new regulations. “Currently you’re just having a gold mine right at your door, but you actually don’t know how to mine it,” she said. The biosciences boom There’s a lot at stake: the genetic building blocks that make up our bodies could unlock discoveries with wide-ranging effects, from health care and the economy to national defense and biosafety. In recent years, Chinese scientists and authorities have emphasized how genetic material could be useful in studying and treating diseases; developing pharmaceuticals and medical devices; and in better understanding how birth defects are formed or how genes contribute to a person’s longevity – particularly important given China’s looming demographic crisis as its birth rate falls and workforce ages. And the country’s genetics could offer a “strategic resource and a treasure trove,” thanks to the sheer number of people and its “healthy and long-lived populations,” officials have claimed – though scientists caveat that each country’s genetic population is valuable in its own way. Reflecting this heightened focus, new research centers have popped up in various parts of China, with publicly listed biopharma companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In 2015, the government said its database was the world’s largest, with some 44 million entries, according to Chinese academics. The ruling Communist Party has thrown its support behind the boom, identifying biotechnology as one of the “strategic emerging industries” the country will focus on developing in the government’s latest five-year policy plan. “China has amassed the largest genomic holdings of anywhere in the world,” Anna Puglisi, director of biotechnology programs at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, told a US Senate hearing on national security in 2021.