GMO China: How Global Debates Transformed China's Agricultural Biotechnology Policies(Contemporary Asia in the World)

In China, as elsewhere, the debate over genetically modified organisms has become polarized into anti- and pro-GMO camps. Given the size of China's population and market, much is at stake in conflicts over regulation for domestic as well as international actors. In this book, Cong Cao provides an even-handed analysis that illuminates the tensions that have shaped China's policy toward agricultural biotechnology in a global perspective. Cao presents a comprehensive and systematic analysis of how China's policy toward research and commercialization of genetically modified crops has shifted that explains how China's changing GMO stances reflect its evolving position on the world stage. While China's scientific community has set the agenda, it has encountered resistance rooted in concerns over food safety and consumers' rights as well as issues of intellectual property rights and food sovereignty. Although Chinese leaders at first sought to take advantage of the biotech revolution by promoting GMO crop consumption, Cao demonstrates that policy has since become precautionary, as seen in new laws and regulations grounded in concerns over safety and the deferral of commercialization of GM rice. He presents China's policies in light of changing global attitudes toward GM crops: As shifts in China have closely followed global trends, so has domestic activism. Drawing on government and scientific documents as well as interviews with scientists, officials, policy analysts, activists, and journalists, GMO China is an important book for China studies, science and technology studies, policy analysts, and professionals interested in the Chinese biotechnology market.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Transgenic Technology and GMO Controversies 2. Global GMO Policy 3. Research and Commercialization of GM Crops in China 4. Science, Biosafety, and Regulations 5. Polarization and Politicization of Transgenic Technology 6. The Chinese Media and Changing Policy 7. Patents and China’s Bt Rice 8. China as a GMO Nation Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Cong Cao is professor of innovation studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He is the author of China’s Scientific Elite (2004) and, with Denis Fred Simon, of China’s Emerging Technological Edge: Assessing the Role of High-End Talent (2009).

Review :
Cong Cao's is the first major study of China’s experience with the promotion of and the debate about genetically modified organisms. GMO China is a thoroughly researched and insightful work. Based on a decade of fieldwork and interviews, Cong Cao's impressive research offers a fascinating window into the complexity of Chinese policy making on a highly contentious issue. Revealing the difficulty of formulating a consistent, sustainable policy that can reconcile the interests of the multiple actors and stakeholders, it will be of wide interest within Chinese and science and technology studies, as well as to those seeking business opportunities in agricultural biotechnology. Cong Cao’s book GMO China is refreshing and enlightening. Cao presents a comprehensive account of the policy maneuvering, narratives, actors's strategies, negotiations, and brokerage that shaped this new high-tech policy field. The author offers gripping, vivid analyses not only of transgenic technology which continues to pose new ethical and policy challenges, but also of the unwieldy and tenuous trajectories that these create for all constituents both within and beyond China.