(CN) New laws to guide transgenic research

[Guest guest]

China Daily http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/

by JIN BAICHENG

05/30/2001

 

China is drawing up biological safety laws in a bid to provide necessary

supporting legislation for the administration of transgenic and other

biological technologies, a top official said yesterday in Beijing.

" The impending laws will be in accordance with the relevant international

conventions but will be tailored to China's particular needs, " Xu Guanhua,

minister of science and technology, told a press conference on the

development of China's high-tech agriculture.

 

Besides strengthening the support of biological safety, China will also set

up an efficient supervision system, according to Xu.

 

Over the past two decades, China has made remarkable achievements in the

sector, especially in transgenic technology.

 

Xu revealed that so far China has successfully cloned over 100 types of gene

and bred more than 180 species of transgenic plants, of which 15 species

have been put into use.

 

However, China is quite cautious about the commercial use of the technology.

 

" Although we have got no proof that transgenic foods harm people's health,

the possibility for potential danger cannot be ruled out. " Xu said.

 

By 1999, the world's planted areas of transgenic plants surpassed 40 million

hectares. In China, however, pest-resistant cotton is the only kind of

transgenic plant that has received permission for commercial production. The

commercial use of transgenic grain, oil and food is still not allowed in the

country.

 

China first began its agricultural gene research in the early 1980s. In the

mid-1980s, biological technology was listed in the National High-tech

Development Programme, which is dubbed the 863 Programme.

 

In the genetic engineering of plants, China has made remarkable achievements

in pest and disease resistance, quality improvement and herbicide

resistance.

 

According to an official report released yesterday by Xu's ministry, by the

end of 1996, the number of transgenic plant species on which China had been

doing research reached 47, involving 103 kinds of genes.

 

The report, entitled the " Present Status of Chinese High-Tech Agriculture

and Its Goal during the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), " said China has also

been quite successful in animal cloning, the breeding of transgenic animals,

catching up with developments in transgenic techniques, reaching or even

surpassing the world's most advanced levels in the field.

 

China has successfully cloned goats by adapting the fetus somatic cell of

the transgenic goat and has successfully cloned goats by adapting an adult

somatic cell, with the rate of success being 10 to 20 times that of the

Dolly Sheep.

 

In addition, China has reached world advanced levels in research using

radiation to improve crops and in the application of nucleon tracing

techniques to agricultural chemicals.

 

The development of transgenic technology is only part of China's effort to

develop high-tech agriculture, which is expected to improve the status of

Chinese agriculture in the world.

 

For many years, Chinese agricultural products have been typified by their

low-level technology, low added-value and weak competitiveness. In 1999, the

volume of exported Chinese agricultural products accounted for only 3.7 per

cent of the total volume of global agricultural exports, a figure out of

whack with China's international status in world trade.

 

In a bid to change the situation, China has established a high-tech

agriculture demonstration zone in Yangling, in Northwest China's Shaanxi

Province.

 

According to Cheng Andong, governor of Shaanxi Province, the zone has

carried out international co-operation with the United States, Canada,

Japan, Israel, and many other countries and regions.

 

In November, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Foreign

Trade and Economic Co-operation and 14 other State Departments and Shaanxi

Province will jointly sponsor the Eighth China High-tech Agriculture Fair,

which is aimed at promoting the industrialization of China's high-tech

agriculture.

 

The seventh fair, held last November, attracted over 1.2 million people and

US$186 million in foreign investment.