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A September 2002 Report from U.S. Embassy Beijing

Human embryonic stem cell research in China is at a nascent stage but developing rapidly.  Many of the top labs plan to submit their findings to international scientific journals within the next two years.  Until then, all unsubstantiated news reports should be ignored as some researchers make false claims simply to draw media attention.  

The main obstacle for some of the best research labs has been obtaining adequate supplies of high quality embryos.  This has created a market for human embryos that remains unregulated.  Although a number of ethics groups have raised public awareness on the moral issues of human embryonic stem cell research, effective laws cannot be expected any time soon.  Even if new laws are passed, there are no plans to oversee and enforce them.  The potential for public opprobrium may remain a key deterrent to unethical human embryonic stem cell research.  

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research in China

Human embryonic stem cell research is the latest and most significant development in China's use of biotechnology to harness the nation's most abundant and valuable resource -- its people.  Given the resonance of this topic with developments worldwide, it is useful to sift through the morass of false reports and rumors.  This report aims at providing a map of the political, economic, and social environment of human embryonic stem cell research in China to assess future developments as the country forges ahead into a brave new world.

Research Still Nascent

Human embryonic stem cell research in China is still at a nascent stage.  To date only three papers related to human embryonic stem cell research have been published in Chinese journals.  None meet the standard criteria for establishing a human embryonic stem cell line set forth by Thompson (Science, 1998).  According to these published results, Chinese researchers have so far only isolated human embryonic "stem-like-cells," inner cell masses (ICM's), and other undifferentiated cells from early embryonic development.

No lab in China has published a single paper on human embryonic stem cells in an international journal.  Since most grants for this research will run out within the next two years, researchers are under extreme pressure to publish results in an internationally respected journal.  In a race for results, many labs have turned to less controversial areas not requiring human embryos.  For example, researchers at Beijing Medical University have used fetal tissue to grow a human neural stem cell line past thirty generations.  They plan to submit their findings to Nature magazine next year.

As a result of this pressure and the lack of published results, many researchers have resorted to making outlandish claims to the press as a means of attracting attention, and possibly funds, to their labs.  For example, some researchers at Sun Yatsen Medical University claim to have isolated a human embryonic stem cell line before Thompson.  However, no lab in China with verifiable results would have waited to submit their findings to an internationally respected journal such as Cell or Nature because of the national fame such a publication would bring.  The media, both in China and abroad, are now inundated by reports on Chinese research on human embryonic stem cells and cloning that are never verified.

Researchers at the Sun Yatsen Medical University are in the news the most often, and have a reputation among Chinese scientists for making unsubstantiated claims and inflating their number of publications with unoriginal results.  For example, one researcher recently sought publicity for using a routine protocol to isolate a mouse embryonic stem cell line, something other researchers already achieved in 1991.  In 1998, the scientist published two papers in two Chinese journals using exactly the same results.

High Potential for Rapid Development

The Chinese have the potential to rapidly develop human embryonic stem cell research over the next two years.  They possess a large and ready supply of human embryos to test.  The political will to fund such research is still strong.  And, the Chinese have acquired the technological expertise through the influx of a number of foreign-trained Chinese born scientists such as Deng Hongkui, Li Lingsong, and Liu Jia'en who now head the key labs in the field.

A major obstacle to further development has been properly combining these resources.  University labs in major urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai have the most expertise and best facilities.  However, because they are focused on basic research, they do not have collection facilities to obtain an adequate supply of human embryos.  For this, they must rely on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics, often located in rural areas.  The problem has been exacerbated because the Chinese government has recently reduced the number of IVF clinics from over 150 to less than 60 to 70, one or two per province.  Of these, only three clinics have "third generation" IVF technology which allows doctors to screen embryos for inherited diseases to ensure their suitability for research.  These three clinics are the Shanhai Huide IVF Clinic (in Beijing), the Hunan Medical Institute, and the Sun Yatsen Medical University.

This situation has created a market for human embryos that is completely unregulated.  In exchange for human embryos, rural hospitals and clinics aggressively seek strategic partnerships with university labs for technology and joint credit on publications.  This leads to potential conflict when research labs are unwilling to share their findings.  For example, one of the leading scientists in the field successfully isolated and grew a human embryonic stem cell line up to 6 passages.  After his initial success, his supplier of human embryos demanded joint credit for his research.  When he refused, the hospital only supplied him with one or two poor quality embryos per month, forcing the researcher to stop his work until he could find another supplier.

Not surprisingly, the emerging leaders in human embryonic stem cell research are those who have successfully solved the problem of obtaining sufficient supplies of quality embryos.  These labs often consist of a foreign-trained expert partnered with a local Chinese researcher.  For example, after working in Belgium and the United States, Liu Jia'en collaborated with Chen Dongfeng to establish the Shanhai Huide IVF Clinic in October, 2001 with an initial start up investment from the government of RMB 50 million (about $6 million).  Performing over 3,600 operations at RMB 30,000 apiece, they project a net profit of RMB 50,000 for their first year.  From these operations, Liu Jia’en has stockpiled a large number of high quality embryos and has expressly stated that he plans to reinvest his capital gains into developing a human embryonic stem cell line for profit.  Other leaders include Deng Hongkui at Beijing University, Li Lingsong at Beijing Medical University, and researchers at Sun Yatsen Medical University.  Some foreign companies have also entered into strategic partnerships with rural hospitals.

Ethical Norms Forming

The Chinese are inclined to follow the British by allowing research on human embryos and cloning to continue for therapeutic purposes.  In 2001, the two national committees on medical ethics and bioethics, the Beijing Ministry of Health Medical Ethics Committee and the Southern Chinese Human Genome Research Center Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues Committee (ELSI) proposed ethical guidelines on human embryonic stem cell research.  The suggested regulations ban activities that most nations condemn such as reproductive human cloning and the buying and selling of human embryos for commercial purposes.  They also propose the establishment of a new organization to centralize the ethical management of stem cell research in China, a responsibility that is currently divided between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and local ethics committees.

Even if these proposals are enacted into law, however, there are still no clear plans on how to oversee and enforce them.  Similar legislation on artificial reproductive technologies took over ten years to be passed.  The issue, however, is of growing concern to the government.  The Ministry of Science and Technology specifically discussed the ethical problems of human embryonic stem cell research and cloning at a conference held in Beijing on May 17, 2002.  One proposal, apparently, is to have local governments choose to give licenses to certain labs that meet ethical standards to conduct research on human embryos.  A report is currently being prepared for presentation at next year’s session of the National People’s Congress. 

Concerned that official action may take too long, a number of ethicists and some outspoken scientists such as Yang Huanming, director of the Chinese Human Genome Research Center, have created small activist groups to raise awareness on the ethical issues of research on human embryonic stem cells.  Through criticism in the popular press, these groups were successful in pressuring scientists from working on human-rabbit chimeras and stopping funding to another researcher who sought to develop human-bovine chimeras.  With the backing of organizations such as Sinocells, ethics groups have turned human embryonic stem cell research into a topic of national debate argued in forums ranging from the popular press to college debate competitions.
Centers for bioethics are forming in Beijing, Shanghai, and several places in Sichuan. 

Qiu Renzong at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Applied Ethics Center, Du Zhizheng, Peng Ruicong, and Li Benfu are some of the key members of the Ministry of Health Medical Ethics Committee.  (Qiu Renzong also trained many among the first two generations of ethicists such as Zhao Xiaomei, Xiao Wei, and Wang Yanguan.)  Qiu Xiangxing, at the Number Two Shanghai Medical Science University leads the ELSI group.  This group is backed by Chen Zhu, a leading U.S.-trained hematologist who is now Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  Other unofficial groups include Xu Zongliang and Zhu Wei at Fudan University in Shanghai.  Working closely with the ELSI group, they have just started a center with a new program and small budget.  In Wuhan, Yin Zhenkun has started a small group in the Philosophy Department of Huazhong University that collaborates with another group in Wuhan Tongji College.  Finally, Li Lun runs a website www.chinaethics.com out of Changsha.

Pivotal Year Ahead

2003 will be a pivotal year for stem cell research in China.  Many of the top labs plan to submit their most promising results to international research journals.  This may consolidate the number of labs working in the field as funding institutions concentrate their resources on the few labs that produce results.  Some scientists and ethicists also expect the Chinese government to issue a more concrete statement on their stance toward the use of human embryos.  However, no laws or enforcement can be realistically expected in the short term.  This means that ethical considerations may be most powerful when scientists feel that public criticism could jeopardize research funding by damaging their reputation. 

Note:  This report was prepared by Philip Cho, a voluntary intern at Embassy Beijing in Summer 2002.