Biotech competitiveness is the vital internal link to China

//DH

Like the introduction of computers, biotechnology is a tool with the potential to revolutionize multiple economic sectors. Biotechnology—the application of living organisms in science or engineering—already solves problems today, like improved cancer treatment, agricultural sustainability, and novel types of materials. The United States can do more to integrate biotechnology across the domestic economy so that Americans are reaping the economic and security benefits that biotechnology can offer. Failing to meet this moment will have far-reaching consequences, especially because we have a strategic competitor that seeks to control critical supply chains and dominate key elements of the biotechnology industry.

Based on what we are seeing, China recognizes that advancements in biotechnology— such as DNA synthesis, gene editing, and precision fermentation—are essential to meeting the needs of their population and to competing globally. These same technologies could be used for nefarious purposes: China has expressly invested in biotechnologies that create military advantages. While any country can target technology areas for investment, we have seen a more nefarious side of China’s use of biotechnology. They have used biotechnology related advancements to support military purposes, acquire personal data, and surveil and control their own populations.2

China’s last three Five-Year Plans have prioritized biotechnology, and China has invested billions of dollars in the sector. Some estimate that China’s central, provincial, and local governments have collectively invested over $100 billion into the life science sector.3 Most recently, China’s ‘14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomy Development’

describes China’s intentions to use biotechnology and other life sciences to strengthen its economy, especially biomanufacturing.4 The plan describes the importance that China sees in merging artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology, as well as the need for both political and financial support, stating “[w]e will promote the integration and innovation of biotechnology and information technology, accelerate the development of biomedicine, bioengineered breeding, biomaterials, bioenergy, and other industries and increase the size and strength of the bio-economy.” In this plan, China sets a goal of increasing the scale and usage of biotechnology in multiple sectors by 2025. China aims for its bioeconomy to “be at the forefront globally” by 2035.5

China’s Methods to Pursue Dominance

The United States is a global leader in biotechnology, but that status is increasingly threatened by China’s strategic actions. China is positioning itself as a leader in biotechnology in order to increase their self-sufficiency and take advantage of associated economic and military benefits. China views biotechnology as the next industrial revolution and key to future economic development and comprehensive national power. This state support goes far beyond the traditional industrial policies implemented in Europe and other parts of Asia. China’s strategy is comprehensive and represents an alternative blueprint for the development of emerging technologies and industries. China’s all-embracing approach plays a key role in fostering technology areas that rely on longer timelines, multidisciplinary coalitions, or big science facilities— such as advanced computing, high-end gene sequencing, and colonies of non-human primates.

Over the last two decades, China has put in place policies to support the Chinese biotechnology industry, including: relatively high research and development (R&D) spending, talent recruitment programs, expansion of state-owned and state-supported enterprise, licit and illicit acquisition of intellectual property (IP), central government strategy and coordination, preferential tax treatment, subsidies, and government procurement initiatives. China is on the path to becoming a biotechnology superpower thanks to its long-term commitment to building an innovation base that includes industrial clusters and interdisciplinary research labs which collect and analyze extraordinary amounts of genomic and other “omic” data, and leverage its collaborations with foreign entities—much like its strategy to develop 5G.