Opinion | Amid tensions over Covid-19 origins, China and the world need to cooperate more on biosafety
- Chinese scientists and regulators fear the space is narrowing for them to pursue normal collaboration on biosafety both in China and outside
- Their access to scientific knowledge, research materials and laboratory equipment with both civilian and military applications is becoming more restricted
Yet, if biosecurity is too sensitive for the time, it still deserves broad support. It should be an icebreaker in the diplomatic stalemate on cooperation between Chinese and foreign scientists.
World Health Organization documents describe biosafety as “the containment principles, technologies and practices that are implemented to prevent the unintentional exposure to pathogens and toxins, or their accidental release”. Biosafety begins with protecting the scientists and laboratory technicians and workers who handle pathogens.
These two terms are often used interchangeably, partly because, as organising principles, they are interlinked. But biosecurity is more tilted towards ascertaining the responsibility of agencies, often governmental, in preventing the intentional misuse of microorganisms. Hence, the term can easily inspire considerations beyond science.
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The full name of the document Chinese diplomats put forward is the “Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists”. It has benefited from scientific collaboration between Tianjin University and the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, dating back to 2012. That intra-academy partnership enjoyed support from the US Department of State and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.