Genetic modification of plants for human use began as an inadvertent by-product of seed selection by hunter-gatherers and launched the first agricultural revolution. Systematic gene modification through selective self- and cross-breeding launched a second agricultural revolution in the first half of the 20th century. In the last decades of the 20th century, yet another agricultural revolution began with the ability to manipulate genes not just within but across species. Transgenic Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and another agricultural revolution were born.
Cotton was one of the first crops to which GMO technology was applied. A gene from Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium toxic to bollworm, was inserted into the cotton genome creating a plant that in essence produced its own insecticide. Chinese farmers quickly recognized the potential for increased yields and lower pesticide costs, and were amongst the first to grow what is now known as Bt cotton. China was not only an early adopter of GMOs but also an early innovator and was in fact the first country in the world to develop a pest-resistant GMO rice variety.
As Cong Cao describes in China GMO, it is not surprising that China was at the forefront of the global GMO revolution, given its food security and environmental challenges and its broader strategic focus on technology development and commercialization. What is surprising is that China's GMO revolution stalled with the breakthrough rice not allowed to enter the Chinese market and Bt cotton remaining the only significant GMO crop grown domestically.
China GMO helps us understand why China's GMO revolution stalled by taking us chronologically and thematically through GMO technology in general (chapter one), international GMO regulation and policy debates (chapter two), research on and regulation of GMOs in China (chapters three and four), Chinese public concern about GMO safety and the role of Chinese media in fuelling that concern (chapters five and six), and the specific case of GMO rice (chapter seven). Cao's particular emphasis, and the subtitle for the book, is on external influences in China's GMO story. Cao explains how scientists studying in the US acquired the initial skills to develop and commercialize GMO crops, but he also describes how perceived risks from GMOs to human and environmental health influenced Chinese government decisions against the commercialization of the very crops they supported their scientists in developing. Cao explains how those perceptions where based in part on observation of other state actors, particularly those within the European Union. But as Cao describes, substantial influence also came through international non-governmental organizations, most notably Greenpeace, who were allowed to operate in China and disseminate anti-GMO messages. Cao documents and analyses how these messages were in turn magnified by Chinese media. Government concern about the public perception of food safety, Cao argues, was a major factor in explaining China's stalled GMO programme.
While GMO China is written as an account of China's evolving GMO landscape, it can also be read as a case study in Chinese science and technology policy: the training of scientists abroad, a focus on science application and commercialization over basic research, and the use of foreign partnerships in commercialization. What this specific case reveals are competing interests and views amongst regulators, other decision makers and researchers, who themselves have conflicting scientific and commercial interests. The actors are not monolithic, there is substantial debate, and public opinion matters.
We are now in the midst of yet another agricultural revolution with the advent of gene editing tools such as CRISPr-CAS 9, a topic Cao touches occasionally in the main text and more directly in the final chapter. Chinese scientists are again at the forefront of the revolution. Following the GMO model, a Chinese post-doc working in the Netherlands developed the world's first gene-edited wheat, returned to China and is working on commercialization with Chinese and multinational companies. Also as in the case of GMOs, decisions about commercialization of the wheat in China may again be influenced by events outside. At the same time as the wheat research was occurring, another Chinese scientist was applying skills honed in the US to the human genome. He Jiankui recently announced the successful editing of genes in the embryos of twins born late in 2018. Official Chinese condemnation was as swift as that of the international scientific community, even though some phases of the research almost certainly took place with official government support. In an age of seemingly constant technological revolution, Cao's book provides a framework for understanding stories like this and helps us consider the complex interactions within China between scientists, consumers and the government, as well as with the international community writ large.
