The Future of Science in China:

Techno-nationalism or

Cosmopolitan Innovation?

Demos Conference 17-18 January 2007

QIU Renzong

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

qiurenzong@hotmail.com

rzq@chinaphs.org

The Confucian legacy

大道之行也，天下为公Da Tao Zhi Xing Ye, Tian Xia Wei Gong

Confucian Classic

� “When the Great Tao runs, the world belongs to all people under the heaven.”

� The implication: All peoples coexist, compete and co-prosper in one world.

� It now is the time for the Great Tao to run.

Nationalism – a reaction to national crisis

� In the Chinese history, nationalism is a reaction to

national crisis: the Mongolian regime, Manchurian

regime, invasion by the Western powers, Japanese

occupation.

� In contrast, Chinese were more open and outward-

looking during the prospering periods, such as the

Han, Tang and Ming dynasties.

Half century’s reflection

� Since the Opium War in 1840, China was invaded, defeated and humiliated. With accumulated energy, Chinese has made huge efforts in rehabilitating the nation as an esteemed state for over a century. During the process, Chinese have learned a lot from other countries for revival of the nation.

� After half century’s reflection, Chinese have realisedthat they have to invite 赛先生Mr. S (science) and 德先生Mr. D (democracy) to China.

� Only less than half of this persistent and enduring dream has come true. We still have a long way to go.

Critical Period

� China is in a critical period of development. Although the country is at its best time in history, it is still far away from the Confucian ideal of Da Tong (the harmonious society).

� We have achieved rather impressive continuous economic growth, but social development lags much behind: the gap between the rich and the poor, social injustice, lack of social security, environment deterioration, increasing criminal rates, pervasive corruption in every single fields, even in science, education and health care.

� Can be the development and environment sustainable? This is a crucial problem facing today’s China.

New Concepts, New Ideas

� Human beings as the root (以人为本)� Scientific concept of development (科学发展观)� Striving for international standards (与国际接轨)� Peaceful rise or peaceful development (和平崛起或和平发展)� Harmonious society (和谐社会)� Harmonious world (和谐世界)

In recent years, the Chinese leaders has put forward the

following concepts and ideas as the guiding principles of

governance to cope with these issues:

They convey an unambiguous message that China is

determined to solve pressing domestic issues and is eager to

keep peaceful relations with foreign countries.

Is “Peaceful Rise” Possible?

� On Chinese side, Chinese people are very reluctant to give up the happy life which they are enjoying now and have been longing for hundreds of years. They don’t need cold war nor hot war. What they only need is peace and development .

�

� So the rhetoric of “deterrence” and “supposed enemy” are neither helpful nor constructive.

� “国家兴亡，匹夫有责。”

Ordinary people are responsible for the rise and

fall of a nation.

- Chinese proverb

� “己欲立而立人，己欲达而达人。”

If you stand, you have to help others to stand; if

you develop, you have to help others to develop.

- Confucius

The message Confucianists conveyed is the

responsibility for own country and commitments

to help other countries can be compatible.

Techno-nationalism

� Scientific activities could be motivated by:

- Curiosity (science for science’s sake)

- Personal fame and profits

- National interest

� Techno-nationalism has its reasonable place in the pursuit of scientific and technological innovations - as long as it is under the framework of harmonious international relations. It would be unreasonable to expect a country like China to forgo research into defence and space technology.

� Techno-nationalism can be compatible with cosmopolitan innovation. It’s a matter of balance, and also depends on what kind of nationalism.The nationalism with racism or dividing races or ethnic groups into superior and inferior, and the latter should be dominated by the former is incompatible with cosmopolitan innovation.

Science: an international endeavor

� Modern science was born in Europe. Traditional Chinese knowledge of nature is unique and interwoven with philosophical concepts, which makes it difficult to test. So Chinese have to learn from the West, if we want to make science and technology our national strengths.

� Scientific research is carried out over the world and there is an increasing trend of “globalisation of science and technology”. Chinese researchers have to communicate and collaborate with more advanced institutes in the West (or in a world network) to remain competitive.

� Chinese scientists are becoming more and more cosmopolitan.

� Chinese bioethicists should be cosmopolitan, too.

Is “International” Always Western?

� Some Chinese bioethicists dismiss the basic ethical principles (such as respect for persons, non-maleficence/beneficence) and the international ethical guidelines as being Western. They want to replace them with Confucian alternatives.

� Ironically, it is Confucianists who argued that “doing no harm is the art of ren (humaneness)”(Mencius), and that the people with ren must respect persons (Xun Zi).

� Basic ethical principles adopted in bioethics and international ethical guidelines are not exclusively “Western”, but are shared by Confusianism and traditional Chinese values.

Regulating Biotechnologies� Like scientific endeavour, ethical governance of science also

becomes increasingly international.

� As early as in 1988, Chinese scientists and bioethicists advised the government to regulate assisted reproductive technologies (ART). After the publicity of Dolly in 1997, the government sped its pace to regulate biotechnologies. Many regulations have been initiated and recommended by scientists and bioethicists.

� In the process of drafting those regulations, Chinese scientists, bioethicists and policy makers studied all relevant laws and regulations promulgated by Western governments and legislatures. The British Embassy in Beijing helped us a lot on this.

� Given the vast scale and immense complexity of the country, implementation of the regulations on biotech has proved to be challenging. We need to learn from our colleagues in the West.

Seeking Common Grounds

� Premise 1: Each culture has its strengths and weaknesses

� Premise 2: Values of different cultures are overlapping

� Premise 3: Different cultures can learn each other

� Principle 1: Respect other cultures

� Principle 2: Seeking common grounds while reserving disagreements

� Principle 3: Resolve disagreements through dialogue, consultation and negotiation

� Principle 4: Ready to make compromise at any time

� Principle 5: Be patient

Premises and principles in dealing with relations or conflict

between different cultures

Prospect of collaboration

� Energy, environment and climate science

� Diseases (HIV/AIDS, avian flu)

� Basic science

� Regulating biotechnologies

� Fighting against scientific misconduct

� Communication between scientists, media and the

public.

� Many other areas

Animal experimentation

� There have been serious concerns regarding animal experimentation in China, especially those involving primates.

� China needs proper regulations of animal research to ensure that it does not become the hub for unethical primate research.

� We should consider launching a collaborative project with our colleagues in Europe and the US.

Examples of Successful Collaboration

� There are a lot of very successful collaborative projects between China and Euro pe (including UK) and USA, such as Human Genome Project, HapMap Project

� Scientists participating in these projects are cosmopolitan, but it did not prevent them to take it as a pride for China which is now able to make such contributions together with Western colleagues.

� These examples indicate that the win-win strategy is possible and even a only choice in scientific innovations.

Emerging problems of informed consent

� In a collaborative project on HIV/AIDS clinical trials, the IRB of the Centre for HIV/AIDS, Peking Union Medical College, reviewed a protocol with informed consent form provided by the US collaborator. It contained 20 pages full of scientific and legal jargons.

� The prospective human subjects were semi-illiterate farmers. How could we expect them to understand?

� But the US collaborator refused to revise it. And the IRB decided to not use this form during the process of informed consent. Do we need an international dialogue to address the differences on informed consent?

There are widespread concerns that informed consent forms are

increasingly used as a way to fend off potential liability rather

than to protect human subjects

The Role of Media

� On one hand, there is need to monitor the performance of clinical trials and biomedical research involving human subjects by media. This is inadequate in China.

� On the other, the standard of reporting is generally rather poor. And in some cases we can see entirely irresponsible and extremely damaging reports. There are no media watchdogs to deal with the problem.

The Harvard-Anhui Case (I)

� Harvard School of Public Health and Anhui Medical University had conducted a collaborative study on genetic epideomology for many years. The PI is a Chinese scientist A. The project has been very helpful in building scientific and ethical capacity in Anhui, one of underdeveloped provinces in China.

� But another scientist B and a journalist claimed that A had received $200 million from a US company, the project had never been reviewed by IRB, all informed-consent forms were faked etc. The journalist published many articles in the Chinese media; she and scientist B also made allegations against scientist A at domestic and international meetings.

� However, independent investigations carried out by scientists, bioethicsts, lawyers, journalists – from China and abroad –have shown that those allegations are completely groundless.

The Harvard-Anhui case (II)

� The scientist A was forced to suspend his

research for 3 years, and was blamed “traitor” on

the internet. His family was also badly affected.

Now he and his colleagues resumed the research

in Anhui, nevertheless the harms cannot be

compensated in any way.

� But the journalist and the scientist B have not

been reprimanded.

Communication of science to the public

� When science enters into an obscure field, it becomes more mystified and the distance between scientists and the public is widened. Proper science communication becomes more important.

� Recently, a TV anchorwoman asked an expert on GM food “Is there any problem with GM food?” He answered: “No problem” and also said that genes transferred from animals to plants are just chemicals. The public was not satisfied with the answers and Buddhists refuse to eat vegetables containing animal genes.

� Communication between scientists and the public and the role of the media are topics that urgently need international collaboration. British Council has done good job in China.

Conclusions� Scientists should strive for cosmopolitan innovation.

� Techno-nationalism is compatible with cosmopolitan innovation under the framework of harmonious international relations.

� China is in a critical period of development – it needs help rather than mistrust.

� The basic values between China and the West are overlapping.

� There are no insurmountable culture barriers in collaborations, but respect and patience are crucial.

� China is a vast country and governing 1.3 billion people is not a simple task.

� There are many areas for collaboration. Let’s work together to make China and the world a better place!

Thank you very much for

your attention and patience