Biotech is the new battlefield in the US-China rivalry. Everyone loses

Medical research is a vital public good. Failure to collaborate would be disastrous for global health.

- Tan Dawn Wei Senior Columnist

For decades, biotechnology was among the few areas of collaboration between China and the United States, and the partnership delivered significant gains on both sides. China sought to raise its research level by working with American government agencies, universities and commercial entities. US pharmaceutical giants leaned heavily on China for the low-cost production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs.

The Sino-American Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology, signed in 1979 by then leaders Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter, and updated in December 2024 by the Biden administration, underpinned a swathe of successful projects such as a decades-long study that has helped to prevent millions of birth defects; improvements to the seasonal flu vaccine; and joint research in cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

But with both countries now increasingly viewing biotechnology through the lens of national security and geopolitical rivalry, collaboration on global health has taken a dip. The increased scrutiny of the FBI's China Initiative and investigations into researchers' ties to China have made American institutions cautious. China's regulations on managing human genetic resources have complicated international partnerships. The Trump administration's plan to implement stricter export controls and capital controls have also made American firms hesitant to collaborate with Chinese counterparts.

Like semiconductors and rare earths before it, biotechnology is now being swept into the geopolitical undertow.

In Beijing, President Xi Jinping has made the industry one of the pillars of his plan to turn China into a global innovation leader by 2035. It has become a critical sector for self-reliance and technological prowess, a move the US views as a direct challenge to its dominance in innovation and one that has security implications too.