At genome-editing summit, experts worry that rule changes on embryo research in China fall short

LONDON — The first gene-edited children were born in China five years ago, but it’s unlikely to happen again there anytime soon. That was the message Chinese scientists delivered Monday on the opening day of the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing in London.

While the widely condemned experiment conducted by He Jiankui violated two existing Chinese regulations dating back to 2003 — which prohibit genetically altered embryos from being implanted into people for reproductive purposes — rulemaking in China accelerated significantly after the scandal, which broke on the eve of the last genome summit in Hong Kong in 2018.

Since then, nearly a dozen laws addressing human genome editing have been written or refined, Peng Yaojin, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of its life sciences and medical ethics committee, told summit attendees Monday in London.

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