On September 4, 2020, SIAS held a seminar “BiotechInnovation and Anti-terrorism” at the City Hotel Shanghai. Academics from FudanUniversity, Tongji University, Shanghai International Studies University andShanghai Academy of Social Sciences attended the meeting.

Participants reviewed President XiJinping’s statement “we should make biosecurity an important part of our overallnational security, integrating peacetime preparedness with that of wartime,prevention with emergency response, research with treatment; strengthenepidemic prevention and control, public health research and capacity building”,and “ blockchain could offer a breakthrough for technological innovation, weshould accelerate blockchain technology and the industry’s innovativedevelopment”. President Xi emphasized that biosecurity is key to “nationalsecurity and development, as well as the overall stability of the society”,which we must make a priority.

Academics at the meeting agreed that biosecurity involved not only naturally occurred orhuman-induced security types, such as major infectious diseases, microbial drugresistance, and biological invasions, but also maliciously intendedactivities, including bioterrorism, bioweapon threats, and activities humansconducted to prevent these risks or to satisfy their own needs, from lab biosafety,GMO safety to technology misuse and abuse.

Biotech innovation is reshaping the relationships among human,nature and society. Some actors may apply new biotech violence to pursueabsolute biosecurity or strategic economic interests. Manipulation of  species groups may endanger bioeconomy securityand cyber biosecurity. The threat of biological warfare and bioterrorism may synergizeand evolve into new tools for strategic deterrence, strategic intimidation, and transfinite war. We must fully understand theimportance of biotech transformations, as it is closely related to the common destinyof human society.

The revolution of biotechnology and related security concerns willchallenge the traditional concept of human security and the endogeneity ofmodern civilization. We should actively respond  to the great changes in internationalbiosecurity landscape by adopting a multi-level governance framework involvingindividuals, groups and nations. Every individual, group or country engaged inthis historical process has its responsibility and mission.

Frontier biotechnology represented by genome editing, gene drive andsynthetic biology develops rapidly. While benefiting human development in manyfields, such as health care and agriculture, it also poses a serious threat tothe biosafety of all mankind.