
China’s Biotechnology Development: The Role of US and Other Foreign Engagement [pdf] - killjoywashere
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/US-China%20Biotech%20Report.pdf
======
killjoywashere
They don't really beat around the bush:

> The Chinese government has formulated policies to support the use of big
> data and modern techniques to drive new discoveries and cures by analyzing
> large healthcare, genomic, and other personal health data sets. China’s
> State Council treats the role of big data in health and medicine as a
> national priority, and China is building national and regional health and
> big data centers in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Nanjiang, and Changzhoi. China has also
> launched a 60 billion yuan ($9.3 billion) precision medicine initiative that
> will benefit from this capability.

> China’s biotech companies have access to healthcare and genomic data on US
> persons through various channels, including investments and partnerships. At
> least 23 companies with a nexus to China are certified according to the
> Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and accredited by the
> College of American Pathologists (CAP), giving them direct access to US
> medical and health data via their participation in our healthcare system.

> Compared to other nations, the US has fewer protections on sharing of
> medical and healthcare data, including internationally, facilitating foreign
> access to data on US persons. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation
> (GDPR) protects identifiable information more strongly than any US
> regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
> Act (HIPAA). China’s laws go even further, preventing export of data on
> Chinese persons and requiring a permit for each research use of genomic
> information.

> China’s efforts to acquire US health data combined with limited data
> protections by the US raise questions about national security.
> Theoretically, access to private information on security-sensitive US
> persons creates a risk of blackmail and may reveal health conditions
> exploitable in a targeted attack, although no public reports suggest this
> has yet happened or is a current aim of the Chinese Government or industry.

> China has numerous laws requiring or authorizing access to private-sector
> data by the central government, ostensibly for national security reasons.
> While it is difficult to discern the level of access afforded to the Chinese
> government through these laws, their vagueness when it comes to oversight
> could allow collection of data to go relatively unchecked.

> The US is not moving as aggressively as China to advance the use of big data
> in healthcare, and that could, over time, open an innovation gap. The US can
> prevent this outcome by investing in its own infrastructure, knowledge base
> and scientific enterprise.

