China is the earliest country in the world using biotechnology. It is said that Chinese people mastered cultivation of crops and rational crop rotation early in the Stone Age, and in the later part of the Stone Age, Chinese people were able to produce alcohol through fermentation technology. In the Zhou Dynasty (221 BC), technology for making bean curd was developed, and has been used till now. In 200 BC, flax dipping with anaerobic bacteria was recorded in The Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems of China. In the 10th century AD, a vaccine was developed for the prevention of smallpox.
The output of antibiotics, vaccines and vitamins in China is ranked the first in the world; China is ranked first in production and sales of vinegars, soy sauces, gourmet powder and beers in the world; China is number one in the world in output of organic acids such as citric acid; China is ranked the first in the world in the production and sales of edible fungus.
In the field of agricultural biotechnology, China’s pioneering hybrid rice technology has been popularized in more than 20 countries, contributing to “satisfying the needs of Asians for foods.” Research on exploitation of heterosis in crops such as wheat, soybean, cotton and rape takes the lead in the world. The first calf, fish and trans-genus fish cloned from a somatic cell are created by Chinese and overseas Chinese scientists. In medical biotechnology P53 injection, the first gene therapy drug on the market in the world, was developed by China. The first SARS vaccine, cell therapy drug and therapeutic hepatitis B vaccine used clinically in the world are all developed by China. The first clinical study of therapeutic AIDS vaccine and the first AIDS regimen-“cocktail therapeutics” are accomplished by Chinese scientists.
China first succeeded in the synthesis of insulin and ribonucleic acid. China first completed the whole genome sequencing of rice, silkworm and schistosome. Many important functional genes were discovered. In addition, China takes the lead position in basic research such as the structural determination of membrane proteins, identification of the functional genes for salt and drought-tolerance, and treatment of leukemia.
Currently, there are nearly 200 key laboratories for biotechnology funded by the central government as well as the ministerial and provincial governments, with more than 20,000 professionals and technical personnel for biotechnology research and development. Majors associated with life sciences and biotechnology are offered in a large number of universities and colleges. Quite a number of the most outstanding students choose biology as a major for their formal education. All this has paved the foundation for future advances.
More breakthroughs are increasingly made in basic biotechnology research. China, as the only member from the developing countries in the International Human Genome Project, has completed sequencing 1% of human genome. Chinese scientists accomplished independently the draft sequence of the genome of a hybrid rice line 9311 (indica rice), and cloning the pathogenic genes of hereditary diseases such as sensorineural and high-frequency hearing impairment, dentinogenesis imperfect type II, and porokeratosis. Great progress has been made in the research on genes of plants for pest resistance, salt and drought tolerance, and grain quality improvement.
Agricultural biotechnology has played an important role in agricultural production. Two-line hybrid rice technology in the highest elevation in the world has been extensively applied. Six types of transgenic plants such as insect resistant cotton and long-storage tomato have been approved for commercialization. More than 1,000 field testing applications have been approved for transgenic plants. Animal cloning such as goats and calves has been accomplished successfully. A product line of transgenic microbial fertilizer – nitrogen-fixation bacteria azotogen has been set up. Five recombinant microbial preparations for animals such as animal vaccines, and three microbial pesticides such as transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis preparation, have been approved for commercialization.
Great achievements have been made in medical biotechnology. There are over 150 biotech-drugs in clinical trials, of which one-fifth are of class I new drug. Sales of biomedical products was more than RMB 30 billion in 2004, increasing by 100 times over the previous 14 years. The seven gene therapy regimens such as malignancies, hemophilia and others patented by ourselves are undergoing clinical trials, and six tissue engineering products including bone, cartilage, skin and tendon are in phases of clinical trials.
Rapid progress is made in environmental biotechnology and bio-energy. Chinese government has initiated a number of research programs for the development of alcohol fuel and the management of water pollution, garbage treatment, afforestation and desert control by means of biotechnology.
Application of industrial biotechnology is becoming more and more extensive. Microbial fermentation has replaced conventional chemical synthesis in the production of the important industrial chemical acryl amide. Now nearly 10,000 tons of the material for biodegradable plastics can be produced using microbial fermentation.
Nowadays in China, there are about 2,500 enterprises with more than 50,000 employees involved in modern biotechnology. About 100 new enterprises join each year. More than 20 biotechnology parks have been set up in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzheng and elsewhere, where the enterprises are given special offers of preferential policies for taxation, finance, introduction of talents, imports and exports, etc. By now, a large number of new enterprises have been developed, which play a leading role in the development of biotechnology in China.
For the development of biotechnology and bioeconomy, China has advantages in many fields such as human resources, rich biodiversity resources and a huge potential market. After more than 20 years’ development, China’s biotechnology and bioeconomy have shifted from following and copying to independent innovation, from laboratory to industrialization, and from a single technological breakthrough to an integrated and coordinated development. Now it is the flourishing stage of the biotechnology and bioeconomy in China.
China National Center for Biotechnology Development
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Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China
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E-mail: cncbd@cncbd.org.cn
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