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China
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China
China is the world’s most populous country, with over 1.35 billion people, which is about one-fifth of the people in the world. The domestic term for the present economic system is “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” based in part on a reinterpretation of Marx that is at odds with the interpretation utilized by Mao and the Soviets. China has considerable resources to draw upon in scientific research. The major funding institution for scientific research is the Ministry of Science and Technology, which administers the funding of various programs, such as the National Basic Research Program, National High-Tech Research and Development Program, and National Key Technologies R&D Program. The major scientific institution is the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a national academy devoted to the natural sciences, part of the State Council of China.
The major impediment to scientific research in China has historically been the isolation of the Chinese scientific community from the rest of the world, a problem which exacerbated itself each decade as the gap between Chinese science and the rest of the world became greater and greater. In 1978, at the same time the Four Modernizations were implemented, China sought help from the United Nations Development Program to improve the currency of Chinese science. Projects established in the next five years focused on better decision making in scientific and research policy, on-the-job and academic training programs, and information processing centers.
Scientific achievement is seen as a critical political goal as well as a key aspect to long-term economic prosperity, and the Chinese view of the state’s role in scientific endeavors is typical of Asian nations, commonly characterized as “techno-nationalism.” However, as in many other countries, state-supported research tends to favor applied rather than pure research, and to be results-focused with an eye toward solving specific problems or producing commercializable innovations. Historically, China was a major contributor to the history of science and technology. Ancient China is famously home to the inventions of the compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing, collectively called the Four Great Inventions. The Western world surpassed Chinese science and technology during the Enlightenment, and China has not yet caught up, much less regained its lead. Today, technology and applied research are high priorities for the Chinese government, and about $100 billion is spent on scientific research and development each year. The emphases tend to be on engineering and computer science; Lenovo and Huawei are among the leading telecommunications/computer companies in the world, China’s achievements in practical robotics rival Japan’s, and its space program is ambitious and well funded.
Science and technology policy are primarily the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and Technology, formerly known as the State Science and Technology Commission. It coordinates national policy, administers research programs, oversees international cooperation, and fosters science and technology development zones. The Ministry of Education is also involved in science policy, in its role overseeing university research institutes, and the ministries of Industry and Information Technology, Health, and Agriculture all have roles commensurate with their mandates. Many research institutes and programs are overseen by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the major nonengineering professional science organization in China. Individual grants for research are also given by the National Natural Science Foundation.
Although most attention has gone to electronics and information technology, computing, robotics, nanotechnology, and material science, as well as industries that directly impact the needs of China’s enormous population like agriculture and aquaculture, in the 21st century the life sciences have become increasingly prominent in China’s scientific research. The National Natural Science Foundation launched a medical department in 2010 in order to disburse funds for medical research. Since 2011, biotechnology has been a major priority of China’s science funding, and new regulations for stem cell research were introduced in 2012 in order to make it easier for Chinese-produced therapies to be approved for commercial sale overseas. In part because of its laxer regulatory environment, China has already become a medical tourism destination for monied patients seeking experimental or controversial remedies to medical conditions. At least 150, and by some estimates more than 200, institutions and hospitals offer stem cell therapies in China.
The Ministry of Science and Technology in conjunction with the Ministry of Health issued ethical guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research in 2003. As in most countries, reproductive cloning was forbidden. Embryos for stem cell research must originate from voluntarily donated germ cells, gametes or blastocysts spared from in vitro fertilization procedures, blastocysts obtained by somatic cell nuclear transfer, or fetal cells from terminated pregnancies (whether by abortion or miscarriage). While funding is more limited than in the West, many costs are significantly lower.
Stem cell research does not face the same taboo in China that it does in many other nations. While Western researchers contend with the idea, espoused by Catholicism and many other Christian denominations, that a human embryo is a human life, the Confucian worldview dominant in China explicitly rejects this and states that life begins at birth. The Chinese government has perceived an opportunity to make up for decades of lagging behind the West by doubling down research in an area the West has thus far found ethically complicated. Regenerative medicine is one of China’s primary focuses in medical research, and by 2008 China was the fifth-largest source of stem cell research papers.
Untested stem cell therapies vary in their specifics, but they generally boil down to the same approach: treating the injection of stem cells into a patient as a panacea, one the efficacy of which is dependent on the stem cells developing into exactly the right kind of cells the patient needs to remedy his condition. Despite the proven efficacy of stem cell therapies in many contexts, this magical-thinking approach to medicine not only threatens to bilk patients and insurers, but casts a pall on the reputation of legitimate stem cell therapies and researchers. Further, many untested stem cell therapies are offered for conditions that have no other reliable cure or treatment, which complicates things when other, legitimate treatments for those conditions become available. One famous patient receiving untested stem cell therapy in China was supermodel Janice Dickinson, who subsequently sued the Rite Aid corporation in 2013 for the cost of her stem cell treatment for damage to her neck, shoulder blades, back, and knee, after she slipped and fell in a Rite Aid parking lot.
One of the most well-known providers of untested stem cell therapies in China is Beike Biotech, which has marketed extensively online and promised stem cell treatments for conditions including cancer, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, arthritis, autism, and baldness. According to a 2012 study of Canadian medical tourists, Beike’s hospitals in China and Thailand had treated 900 foreign patients. One patient spent about $33,000 ($30,000 of which went to Beike, the rest on travel expenses and incidentals) for four weeks of