The following policy document describes how China should go about creating a system for ethics reviews of scientific research. The policy assigns the main responsibility for ethics reviews to universities, labs, and other institutions that conduct scientific research, with China’s Ministry of Science and Technology in an overall oversight role. It identifies human subject research, use of laboratory animals, and research in fields such as life science, medicine, and AI as particularly deserving of ethical scrutiny.
An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at: https://perma.cc/Z2LW-RJKP
Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Science and Technology Ethics
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 20, [2022]. Recently, the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Science and Technology Ethics,1 and also issued a notice requiring all regions and departments to conscientiously implement this document in light of their actual conditions.
The full text of the Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Science and Technology Ethics is as follows:
Scientific and technological (S&T) ethics are the value concepts and behavioral norms that must be followed in carrying out scientific research, technology development, and other S&T activities, and are an important assurance for the healthy development of S&T undertakings. China’s S&T innovation is developing rapidly at present, and while the S&T ethics challenges it faces are growing, problems exist in the governance of S&T ethics, such as imperfect institutional mechanisms, incomplete systems, and uneven development in different fields, and responding to the practical requirements of S&T innovation and development has become difficult. The following opinions on strengthening the governance of S&T ethics are put forward in order to further improve the system of S&T ethics, increase S&T ethics governance capabilities, effectively prevent and control S&T ethics risks, continuously promote the development of tech for social good (科技向善) and to better benefit humanity, and achieve a high-level of S&T self-reliance (自立自强).
I. Overall Requirements
1. Guiding ideology. Taking Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, and deeply implementing the spirit of the 19th Party Congress and successive Plenums of the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, we shall persist in and strengthen the Party’s centralized and unified leadership in S&T work, accelerate the construction of the S&T ethics system with Chinese characteristics, and improve the institutions and mechanisms of S&T ethics governance with multilateral participation and collaborative governance. Persisting in unifying innovation promotion and risk prevention, and combining institutional regulation and self-restraint (自我约束), we shall strengthen the bottom-line mindset and risk awareness, establish and improve a system of S&T ethics that is consistent with our national conditions and aligned with international trends, and shape the cultural concept and assurance mechanisms of tech for social good, striving to achieve positive interaction between high-quality S&T innovation and development and high levels of security, and to promote the healthy development of China’s S&T undertakings, so as to provide strong S&T support for improving human wellbeing and promoting the building of a community of common destiny for humanity (人类命运共同体).
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Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Science and Technology Ethics- Translator’s note: China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) released a draft version of these Opinions in July 2021. Note that MOST named the draft “Guiding Opinions,” whereas in this final version, the issuers—the General Office of the CCP Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council—downgraded it in authoritativeness to mere “Opinions.” CSET’s English translation of the draft Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Governance of Science and Technology Ethics is available online at: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-science-ethics-guiding-opinions-draft/.