Is cross-border transfer of China's human genetic data an impossible mission?

IF 3.8 2区生物学 Q2 GENETICS & HEREDITY

Human Genetics Pub Date : 2025-07-01 Epub Date: 2025-06-09 DOI:10.1007/s00439-025-02756-8

Jiajv Chen, Wei Li

{"title":"Is cross-border transfer of China's human genetic data an impossible mission?","authors":"Jiajv Chen, Wei Li","doi":"10.1007/s00439-025-02756-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cross-border transfer of human genetic data is a crucial prerequisite for sharing such data globally. However, given the unique nature of human genetic data, this aspiration may not be easily realized. China, a country rich in biological resources, possesses a vast wealth of human genetic data. However, due to China's domestic laws and policies, human genetic data is considered both personal information, subject to regulations like the Personal Information Protection Law, and human genetic resources, governed by the Regulations on Management of Human Genetic Resources. This dual nature necessitates a double security review of human genetic data for cross-border transfer, rendering cross-border transfer of China's human genetic data a seemingly impossible mission. However, in recent years, China has refined its security review rules for cross-border data transfer to increase transparency and, in practice, has eased review criteria, issuing numerous administrative licenses. Such a shift of stance is not fortuitous but rather a planned and purposeful reflection of China's top-level design to promote self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, as well as its strategic goal of joining international digital economy organizations.</p>","PeriodicalId":13175,"journal":{"name":"Human Genetics","volume":" ","pages":"715-725"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Human Genetics","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-025-02756-8","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/6/9 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GENETICS & HEREDITY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Cross-border transfer of human genetic data is a crucial prerequisite for sharing such data globally. However, given the unique nature of human genetic data, this aspiration may not be easily realized. China, a country rich in biological resources, possesses a vast wealth of human genetic data. However, due to China's domestic laws and policies, human genetic data is considered both personal information, subject to regulations like the Personal Information Protection Law, and human genetic resources, governed by the Regulations on Management of Human Genetic Resources. This dual nature necessitates a double security review of human genetic data for cross-border transfer, rendering cross-border transfer of China's human genetic data a seemingly impossible mission. However, in recent years, China has refined its security review rules for cross-border data transfer to increase transparency and, in practice, has eased review criteria, issuing numerous administrative licenses. Such a shift of stance is not fortuitous but rather a planned and purposeful reflection of China's top-level design to promote self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, as well as its strategic goal of joining international digital economy organizations.

查看原文本刊更多论文

中国人类基因数据的跨境转移是不可能完成的任务吗？

人类基因数据的跨境转移是全球共享此类数据的关键先决条件。然而，鉴于人类基因数据的独特性，这一愿望可能不容易实现。中国是一个生物资源丰富的国家，拥有大量的人类基因数据。然而，由于中国国内的法律和政策，人类遗传数据既被视为个人信息，受《个人信息保护法》等法规的约束，又被视为人类遗传资源，受《人类遗传资源管理条例》的约束。这种双重性质需要对跨境转移的人类基因数据进行双重安全审查，使得中国人类基因数据的跨境转移似乎是一项不可能完成的任务。然而，近年来，中国完善了跨境数据传输的安全审查规则，以提高透明度，并在实践中放宽了审查标准，发放了大量行政许可。这种立场的转变不是偶然的，而是有计划、有目的地反映了中国推动科技自主自强的顶层设计，以及加入国际数字经济组织的战略目标。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Human Genetics 生物-遗传学

CiteScore

10.80

自引率

3.80%

发文量

审稿时长

1 months

期刊介绍： Human Genetics is a monthly journal publishing original and timely articles on all aspects of human genetics. The Journal particularly welcomes articles in the areas of Behavioral genetics, Bioinformatics, Cancer genetics and genomics, Cytogenetics, Developmental genetics, Disease association studies, Dysmorphology, ELSI (ethical, legal and social issues), Evolutionary genetics, Gene expression, Gene structure and organization, Genetics of complex diseases and epistatic interactions, Genetic epidemiology, Genome biology, Genome structure and organization, Genotype-phenotype relationships, Human Genomics, Immunogenetics and genomics, Linkage analysis and genetic mapping, Methods in Statistical Genetics, Molecular diagnostics, Mutation detection and analysis, Neurogenetics, Physical mapping and Population Genetics. Articles reporting animal models relevant to human biology or disease are also welcome. Preference will be given to those articles which address clinically relevant questions or which provide new insights into human biology. Unless reporting entirely novel and unusual aspects of a topic, clinical case reports, cytogenetic case reports, papers on descriptive population genetics, articles dealing with the frequency of polymorphisms or additional mutations within genes in which numerous lesions have already been described, and papers that report meta-analyses of previously published datasets will normally not be accepted. The Journal typically will not consider for publication manuscripts that report merely the isolation, map position, structure, and tissue expression profile of a gene of unknown function unless the gene is of particular interest or is a candidate gene involved in a human trait or disorder.