Biopolitical Entanglements: The Political Economy of China’s Genetic Data Troves

• In Event: The Geopolitics of Technology and Innovation

Abstract

Compiling genetic data requires not only technical capacity, but also sociopolitical infrastructure capable of normalizing contentious technologies, mobilizing populations to provide genetic samples, and coordinating actors—and diverse interests—across the biomedical sciences, industry and the state. Drawing on an original data-set tracking ties between BGI and local governments throughout China from 2011-2021, interviews, ethnography, and policy documents, this article analyzes the politics and practices underlying China’s ability to amass genetic data stores and unpacks how constructing these data troves is reshaping boundaries between industry and the state. It shows that while the Chinese government is keen to cultivate a domestic biotech industry and embeds this project high techno-nationalistic rhetoric, asymmetries in expertise enable key firms who engage in the right patriotic performances to shape national shape national dynamics through direct and indirect means.

It argues that China’s genetic data generation turns on negotiated, symbiotic partnerships between agentic firms and local officials. Within these partnerships, firms take on social service provision responsibilities and integrate their technologies into local governance schemes. In return, they gain the data produced by these endeavors, platforms for new technologies, and increased market penetration. Local officials, in turn, foster high-tech economic growth, outsource solving social problems, and distinguish themselves as “policy innovators” through their alliances with domestic biotechnology firms.

Within these negotiations, nationalist discourse functions as an alignment tool, enabling actors to mitigate potential conflicts of interest and blur the distinction between private and public, rather than an indicator of state influence. Ultimately, this article shows how building Chinese biotechnology is re-crafting local governance and shifting responsibility towards private firms while up simultaneously reinforcing—rather than undermining—state legitimacy. In so doing, it unpacks the mechanics of Chinese state capitalism in a high-tech industry of national importance and elucidates the role of data within these processes.

Author

• Abigail Coplin, Vassar College