Syngenta Within Reach, China Signals Speed on GMOs
A researcher uses a pipette to develop assay to detect specific gene of corn at a lab in Syngenta Biotech Center in Beijing, China, in this February 19, 2016 file photo. PHOTO: REUTERS
This post has been updated.
When a Chinese agriculture official this week offered a rare public endorsement for mass-producing genetically modified farm crops, a question arose among those who watch the industry: Is China finally ready for the controversial science?
It’s an issue that has vexed many in the nation, from pundits on China’s microblogs worried about the uncharted effects of GMOs on human health, to military officials who want to ban GMO imports as a matter of strategic defense. China hasn’t allowed any GMO staple foods to be commercially produced on its soil; the last major policy move, taken in 2009, was to certify the biotechnological safety of a handful of homegrown rice and corn strains.
This week, China’s agriculture ministry appeared to say: buckle up.
“We will further focus on strategic priorities in the 13th Five Year Plan,” said Liao Xiyuan, a senior ministry official, referring to China’s development blueprint that runs through 2020. Among of these priorities, he said, were “strengthening the research on cotton and corn as an industrialization strategy for cash crops, and promoting the industrialization process for new pest-resistant [strains of] cotton, corn and other major commodities.”
Mr. Liao’s comments might have been just another mass of bureaucratic jargon, were it not for a handful of other signals that China might indeed be ready to move more aggressively on GMOs.
In late January, the central government and Communist Party’s “No. 1 Central Document” – a blueprint setting out Beijing’s most important agricultural policies – made a reference to GMOs, only the second time that its authors have included the term in the annual tome. This year, it said, Beijing should “strengthen research and regulation on GMO agricultural technique, carefully promoting it on the basis of protecting safety.”
Last year, the No. 1 document briefly mentioned GMOs, but did not mention the key phrase, “carefully promoting.”
Parsing the No. 1 document gives clues to how Beijing will move on the policy, which potentially affects planting plans for millions of metric tons of new cash crops in China, as well as potential large changes in the global agricultural trade.
“The language in the No. 1 document indicates we are still quite slow in the development of GMOs, and that we should really accelerate it,” said Cherry Zhang, a corn analyst for the agricultural consultancy Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. “That’s what the agriculture ministry official is saying as well, though he’s not confirming that the government will definitely permit commercial production by 2020.”
A woman looks at an ear of corn before buying it from a vendor at a morning market in Beijing in this April 8, 2013 file picture. PHOTO: REUTERS
Analysts suggest part of the reason might be that China has solved the biggest conundrum in its search for the technology: How would it control the source?
In February, state-owned China National Chemical Corp. offered $43 billion to buy Swiss GMO giant Syngenta AG, a deal that, if completed, would put Beijing in control of some of the world’s biggest GMO brands, including those for corn and cotton.
Syngenta said in an email to the Wall Street Journal that the decision to commercialize GMOs rests with China’s government. “We believe that Chinese farmers should have access to the full suite of technologies to improve productivity and this can include GM crops,” said Andrew McConville, the company’s Singapore-based head of corporate affairs in Asia.
In the rare air of high technology, from artificial intelligence to space exploration, China has underlined time and again that it wants to join the global race, but on its own terms.
So it has been with GMOs. China has long sought the technology, pushing state-directed research in the field as early as the 1980s and deploying government scholars to U.S. universities and companies during these decades in an effort to develop their own know-how. But as American and European companies raced ahead, China appeared to pull back, mulling how it was going to keep abreast of the technology.
In the fall of 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping set out his priorities. China, he said, has to own its GMOs.
“We must boldly research and innovate, dominate the high points of GMO techniques, and cannot let foreign companies dominate the GMO market,” he said.
In the coming five years, the journey toward homegrown domination looks set to begin.
–Chuin-Wei Yap. Follow him on Twitter @YapCW.
Note: This post has been updated to include comment from Syngenta.
