China’s ethics guidelines – A new era for human genome editing?

What do China’s new ethical guidlines tell us about the country's changing attitude to human genome editing? Professor Joy Zhang reads between the lines...

Recently, China’s National Science and Technology Ethics Committee introduced a new set of ethics guidelines on human genome editing (see BioNews 1247). The guidelines are at least the fourth national level iteration of China's ban on human reproductive genome editing in recent years (following its updates on the Crime Law and Civil Code in 2020, and the ethical review measures in 2023).

It is also the first major publication of the national Ethics Committee since its administrative function was revoked in 2023. Instead of being an ‘advisory and coordinating organ’ (yishi xietiao jigou) of the State Council, it is currently categorised as an ‘academic expert committee’.

As someone who has been researching China's life science policies, I see the new guidelines as a clear indication that the Chinese government is poised to enter a new phase of supporting human genome editing research. But questions remain about whether the latest guidelines will prevent past...