China's Biotech Advances Threaten US Dominance, Warns Congressional Report (msn.com) 93
China is moving fast to dominate biotechnology, and the U.S. risks falling behind permanently unless it takes action over the next three years, a congressional commission said. WSJ: Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S., while barring companies from working with Chinese biotech suppliers, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology said in a report Tuesday. To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world.
"China is quickly ascending to biotechnology dominance, having made biotechnology a strategic priority for 20 years," the commission said. Without prompt action, the U.S. risks "falling behind, a setback from which we may never recover." The findings convey the depth of worry in Washington that China's rapid biotechnology advances jeopardize U.S. national security. Yet translating the concern into tangible actions could prove challenging.
[...] China plays a large role supplying drug ingredients and even some generic medicines to the U.S. For years, it produced copycat versions of drugs developed in the West. Recent years have seen it become a formidable hub of biotechnology innovation, after the Chinese government gave priority to the field as a critical sector in China's efforts to become a scientific superpower.
"China is quickly ascending to biotechnology dominance, having made biotechnology a strategic priority for 20 years," the commission said. Without prompt action, the U.S. risks "falling behind, a setback from which we may never recover." The findings convey the depth of worry in Washington that China's rapid biotechnology advances jeopardize U.S. national security. Yet translating the concern into tangible actions could prove challenging.
[...] China plays a large role supplying drug ingredients and even some generic medicines to the U.S. For years, it produced copycat versions of drugs developed in the West. Recent years have seen it become a formidable hub of biotechnology innovation, after the Chinese government gave priority to the field as a critical sector in China's efforts to become a scientific superpower.
Spend Money (Score:2)
Most (All?) Congressional reports tell Congress that they need to spend MORE MONEY NOW!
In fairness, they're not going to say stop (Score:5, Insightful)
Most (All?) Congressional reports tell Congress that they need to spend MORE MONEY NOW!
I don't think it's common to write a congressional report saying "hey...good job...keep doing EXACTLY what you're doing." If you have enough funding, you're not writing your congressmen. :).
If we ever needed a sputnik moment, I can't imagine a better one than biotech research. I don't know why we would bemoan another country developing amazing drugs and therapies that make life better...other than a lost revenue opportunity. I don't know why I'd be worried if my adversary developed a drug that saves the life of a family member. These seems like "a rising tide lifts all boats" phenomena.
If anything, this will lead to classic brain drain. China builds up these superstar researchers, who are forced to travel the world to present their findings to eager audiences and upon seeing how different life is overseas, realize they'd much rather raise their family in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, or Europe than China.
Re: In fairness, they're not going to say stop (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends on where you're starting from (Score:2)
I don't think anyone would move its family to the USA nowadays.
You must live in comfort to say that. As shitty as Trump is making the place, it's still better than most of the world. It's like saying "no one would work at Google if they stopped giving free massages."...given the current economy, a ton of people would be happy for a stable job that pays well. Similarly, most people in the world have it worse than Americans. They may have more ambivalence than 10 years ago, but still....it's better than where most of the global population lives. I am sure no one fro
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There already is a brain drain where lots of US scientists are moving to Canada.
Canada is a much better place to live.
Re:In fairness, they're not going to say stop (Score:4, Insightful)
That's the fallacy everyone has believed since the fall of the USSR. You won't beat China with coca cola and rock and roll.
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The lyrics are
> Coca Cola, Sometimes War
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That's the fallacy everyone has believed since the fall of the USSR. You won't beat China with coca cola and rock and roll.
The problem the US has is that it's fallen into the same trap that killed the USSR, more concerned with things being ideologically pure than working. Americans have always struggled to overcome the millstone of American Exceptionalism, however too many Americans now believe in it without question and it will destroy the US if not abandoned. Pride goeth before a fall and all that. The US has always had a religious aversion to biotech, which is why Europe is the leader in biotech. Another issue is that Trump
Re:In fairness, they're not going to say stop (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, at this point I'm pretty sure we can say that is the explicit goal.
The current US leadership has devastated medial research in this country, destroyed bodies that coordinate research efforts *and apparently research results*, is attacking universities and deporting foreign students and is hassling people coming to conferences at the border.
That, combined with all the other awfulness is effectively a "Smart People: Fuck off to China" sign.
You won't see a quick change, but you have witnessed the death of US scientific supremacy. And eventually, the economic and military supremacy that depended on it.
Re:In fairness, they're not going to say stop (Score:4, Informative)
Like learning about LGBTQ stuff results in bad math scores. Teaching kids about the civil rights movement, slavery, our treatment of Native Americans, etc. doesnt result in bad math scores either. Nor does learning about the contributions of historically marginalized groups within the US.
There's nothing that the right cries about being "woke" in our schools that stops kids from learning other subjects. Get over your dumb-shit culture war.
You don't know much about China (Score:2)
That, combined with all the other awfulness is effectively a "Smart People: Fuck off to China" sign.
Regardless of the gov, China is a not a welcoming place to immigrants...same with Japan and Korea. IMHO, that's a MASSIVE factor as to why the USA maintained an edge over them. Trump will no doubt cause some brain drain, but most likely to places immigrants already want to go: Canada, New Zealand, Australia, UK, etc...for those who are willing to learn another language, most of Europe, maybe even Dubai.
However, China is a doomed scenario because the language is hard to learn, they don't welcome foreig
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This is a pretty US-centric view that thinks other parts of the world (particularly China) are dystopian societies that people will try to avoid at all costs
No, it's just acknowledging reality as China has a net negative immigration rate https://www.macrotrends.net/gl... [macrotrends.net] . Attractive countries to live in don't have net negative immigration levels.
Nope, it's a China-centric (Score:2)
This is a pretty US-centric view that thinks other parts of the world (particularly China) are dystopian societies that people will try to avoid at all costs. The fact is despite the many failings of its government, I would say a large percentage of people who live in China are quite content, including a not insignificant number of foreigners. And just like US view of China is biased based on media and government reports, many local Chinese view American society with trepidition, with seemingly high rates of violent crime and an out of control woke culture. The reality is of course never quite as bad as portrayed in media, but it would be naive to assume everyone is just yearning to move to America.
Like most on ./, I work in software. Do you think I've never met a Chinese person? :). I've met many immigrants and even Chinese residents visiting. This is their view, not mine. Sure, many are content. Many are content in North Korea. It's all they knew. I was content in my small town I grew up in until I traveled. Most of my former classmates are content.
Also, how many foreigners live in China? Is there a huge cohort of Europeans living there? What about people from North America? Sure, people
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Damn right. We can make America great again by focusing on the kind of research that takes no money at all: pulling opinions out of our asses [aei.org].
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Yes? Why does that come as a surprise to you? These reports are intended as early warnings for areas where morw money needs to be spend or things become expensive. What, you thought not spending money was a winning strategy? How disconnected are you?
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You find it odd that the bit of government charged with directing spending, might have opinions on spending?
Allies and partners? (Score:5, Informative)
"To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world."
I think that horse has already left the barn.
Re:Allies and partners? (Score:4, Insightful)
"To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world."
I think that horse has already left the barn.
If it's smart, then the horse has already left the country, or is at least considering doing so [slashdot.org].
Re:Allies and partners? (Score:4, Informative)
My son is a double major in physics and chemical engineering who is working as a battery researcher at a US firm working on grid storage. He is looking at moving overseas for his PhD, possibly Cambridge or Oxford, because of the bad prospects for research funding at US universities.
That's the kind of people who are looking at leaving the US. It's not the art history and cultural studies majors (no disrespect at all to those fields intended). It's the people with hard core STEM skills who want to do research -- the kind of people the US used to attract as immigrants.
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Remember museums and libraries are under attack as well. That'll certainly affect the artistic class.
Re:Allies and partners? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but I think that while art conservators, educators and appraisers do important work worthy of respect, I think the supply of positions in those fields in Europe is quite limited and inelastic.
In STEM, this is a golden opportunity for Europe to turn the tables and inflict some brain drain on the US for a change. Americans forget that we're only about 4% of the world's population. While we do punch above our weight in terms of engineering and science talent, a lot of our preeminence in engineering and science comes from immigrants seeking research opportunities.
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"To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world."
I think that horse has already left the barn.
Not just that, but I think it was made into glue and meat courtesy of Doge and Trump?
Re: Allies and partners? (Score:2)
You have to get there first, and that ain't happening.
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Yep, the former "allies and parthers" will now do it by themselves.
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That horse is dead a beaten to a paste.
Re: Allies and partners? (Score:2)
Raises hand (Score:5, Insightful)
To achieve its goals, the federal government and U.S.-based researchers will also need to work with allies and partners around the world.
Um... What federal and U.S.-based researchers, didn't the former just get fired and the latter just get their grants chainsawed - I mean - revoked? And weren't we just told they're all just lazy, incompetent, losers living off the taxpayers? /s Sounds to me like the U.S. needs to outsource all this to, um... China. :-)
Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S. ...
Haven't seen any of that in the latest tax cut and spending cut bills from the party in charge ...
Re:Raises hand (Score:4, Insightful)
Haven't seen any of that in the latest tax cut and spending cut bills from the party in charge ...
Not a problem. If Lindsay Graham says we can magically account for a 2 TRILLION dollar tax cut by just pretending it's not a cut in revenue... an additional 15 billion isn't even pocket change. They can just fake-search the congressional couches for change.
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If Lindsay Graham says we can magically account for a 2 TRILLION dollar tax cut by just pretending it's not a cut in revenue...
Wanna see more Republican fun-with-rules from the House? They just decided to ignore calendar days for deadlines to address any joint resolution seeking to end Trump's economic national "emergency". My comment [slashdot.org] noting that else where. To be fair, it was in the Funding Continuing Resolution that Congress passed so they all (D and R) let that slide.
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I'm used to those sorts of shenanigans from the House. But, until recently, I've viewed the Senate as being a somewhat more sane and responsible group - even when I disagreed with the positions taken by the majority party.
The operative term there being "until recently", of course.
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That's what the Senate was always meant to be. I believe it was George Washington who called the Senate "the saucer on which legislation cools" - The House is meant to be a bit more rambunctious and reactionary, and the Senate refines what comes from the House into what needs to actually happen after cooler heads noodle and debate.
Not saying that's what is happening today, but that was meant to be the structure.
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Haven't seen any of that in the latest tax cut and spending cut bills from the party in charge ...
Let's see what fiscally responsible ideas dear leader is pushing this week.
https://www.politico.com/news/... [politico.com]
A 4 mile long military parade though DC to celebrate his birthday. He'll be the envy of Putin and Kim Jung Un.
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Will there be any goosestepping involved?
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The level of hubris in a Trump administration never ceases to amaze me.
DOGE are Ferengis (Score:2)
There were in-progress clinical trials that had to be canceled half-complete because DOGE yanked the funds. They'd have to start from scratch if they ever were re-funded because stoppage requests didn't reach all participants at the same time, among other problems. And it's not just "woke stuff", but cancer and addiction research, for example.
Maybe it's not fraud, but it's certainly waste and abuse. The logical course of action would be to at least let existing studies finish. It's like spending a billion d
No worries (Score:3)
I'm sure Trump has this situation well in hand.
What allies? What partners?
I detest the Chinese Communist Party and wouldn't trust China a millimetre. But I'm conflicted because I also feel schadenfreude when "US dominance is threatened".
Re:No worries (Score:5, Insightful)
I detest the Chinese Communist Party and wouldn't trust China a millimetre. But I'm conflicted because I also feel schadenfreude when "US dominance is threatened".
Problem is, the rest of us will have to continue living in this world long after the Don's fat heinie is rotting in the ground... and we don't have billions of personal dollars to shield ourselves from the ongoing impacts of his graft.
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Oh yeah, I hear you. Donnie's approach to diplomacy and trade is like a guy walking into a china shop and saying: "You know what this needs? It needs me swinging a sledgehammer around..."
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Problem is, the rest of us will have to continue living in this world long after the Don's fat heinie is rotting in the ground
Don't worry, he will make sure lots of us die first
Re: No worries (Score:4, Funny)
"What allies?"
Russia, Turkey, Hungary... All the finest orcs.
Guess we should send more money to Wuhan (Score:1)
If we are worried about Chinese dominance in biotech then why were we funding research in their labs?
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I'm sure you'll find the answer on Hunter Biden's laptop.
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By all measures Hunter is a republican. He lied on a form to exercise his second amendment rights and liked drugs and hookers. Sounds like he would fit right in with the DC crowd.
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Don't forget the unearned cushy board seat where he pulled money out of a company for delivering nothing at all. That's about as Republican as it gets.
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It is known fact that Biden Junior was blackmailing Chinese with his daddyo.
If it's such a 'known fact' then you will have no problem linking supporting evidence that proves that fact. You know, evidence that apparently the numerous Congressional Oversight Committee researchers couldn't or wouldn't put into the Congressional Record as facts despite numerous hearings that were held on the subject, and witnesses that they did bring before the committee not being able to actually prove anything, and in one particular case had charges filed against them for false report and lying to t
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It's a proven fact the Obama government was instrumental in the 2014 coup d'etat of Ukraine.
Proven fact huh? As the above has already requested, let's see you actually support anything you're saying with proper citation. Back up your ridiculous claims.
Re: Guess we should send more money to Wuhan (Score:2)
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The US is about to lose its spot as world leader
That ship has already sailed. That Oval Office shit show with Ukraine showed we cannot be trusted as a military ally. The tariff shit show shows we cannot be trusted as a trading partner. Cozying up to authoritarians and ignoring due process requirements in a rush to deport people with no criminal history whatsoever shows we cannot lead on human rights and blustering about how the "rule of law" is supreme in a civil society.
What's left?
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The US is about to lose its spot as world leader
That ship has already sailed. That Oval Office shit show with Ukraine showed we cannot be trusted as a military ally. The tariff shit show shows we cannot be trusted as a trading partner. Cozying up to authoritarians and ignoring due process requirements in a rush to deport people with no criminal history whatsoever shows we cannot lead on human rights and blustering about how the "rule of law" is supreme in a civil society.
What's left?
McDonald's!
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America has never been a reliable ally. The genius of American soft power has been to convince the rest of the world that they are. Trump decided for some reason to pull off the mask, set fire to it then take a shit in it in front of the Whitehouse before driving an "all computers" Tesla over the ashes.
Business logic (Score:2)
According to modern business logic you don't invest in the future beyond the next fiscal year at most. You focus on the next quarterly earnings report and get your bonus and to hell with the long term. If it fails you sell the pieces to something with "equity" or "capital" in the name, cash out and leave the unpaid bills and dumped employees for someone else to deal with. Since the fed gov has been taken over by businessmen types this same logic has been applied to the nation.
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According to modern business logic you don't invest in the future beyond the next fiscal year at most. You focus on the next quarterly earnings report and get your bonus and to hell with the long term. If it fails you sell the pieces to something with "equity" or "capital" in the name, cash out and leave the unpaid bills and dumped employees for someone else to deal with. Since the fed gov has been taken over by businessmen types this same logic has been applied to the nation.
That makes me curious. Who do they think will want to buy a completely failed nation? I don't believe there's any Bain Capital vulture capitalist equivalent for nation states. Or is this some new opportunity that the oligarchs are preparing for? Perhaps owning the country outright, rather than just owning the politicians, all the power, and most of the assets?
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I don't think the US can actually fail to the point it's the next Russia. It's more likely to split into a decent country (with some leftover MAGA issues) and a collection of hellhole states that form Magastan.
By population, by economy, etc., the 'blue' states will remain whole and continue as a USA reduced by area but primed to improve in many other ways.
Hell of a potential mess as it happens, though.
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They're not looking to sell the whole country as an enterprise.
They're looking to part it out under the guise of "privatization."
See: Social Security, the United States Postal Service, etc.
That ship has long since sailed (Score:2)
When you defund education and persecute people who dare to know things you claim aren't true, then defund research... you're probably not fostering a research-friendly environment.
I would expect the quantity and quality of American research to decline steeply over the next few years. Since these things take longer to build than to destroy, it isn't recovering any time soon even in the government changes its policies.
This seems to be a cookie cutter thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
The US is about to fall behind China in $WHATEVER.
Started in the 2000s with steel making, then factories, then engineers, then getting an actual man on the moon with a flag that isn't going to fade.
Want to know where to place the blame? The fact that our STEM people are tossed like last night's condoms in the trash can, so younger people see that and are don't want to go into anything like that. Law, there is no such thing as an unemployed lawyer. Finance, the bookkeeper will be around forever and unless they do something felony or third-rail level (sexual harassment in public), they will keep employed.
Easy fix: Provide a career path, even if it is a civilian corps for these educated, experienced people so they are not beholden to the whims of whatever things hit CEO magazine. That, or just cede dominance to China, like how Australia has ceded Holden and their car industry offshore.
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Want to know where to place the blame? The fact that our STEM people are tossed like last night's condoms in the trash can, so younger people see that and are don't want to go into anything like that.
They don't even need to look that far ahead. Just look at how STEM people are treated by their peers when they are still young and in school. Conversely, look at who the culture venerates and celebrates in those same cohorts (hint: it's not STEM folks).
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> our STEM people are tossed like last night's condoms in the trash can, so younger people see that and are don't want to go into anything like that.
How is IT life in China past 45?
I'm convinced at least 80% of IT change is fads, especially in ordinary CRUD. The new frameworks are supposed to solve all problems of the past, but instead they solve one thing and fuck up 99 existing features. At least the prior shitstack was the devil we knew.
It's hard to not get cynical, trying to fake being as enthusiasti
Trump is helping (Score:1)
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Can you imagine any sensible academic moving to the United States under the current regime?
It's Trump's Fault (Score:2)
We all know whatever problems the United States has were not caused by our ruling elite. They are Trump's fault. Let me suggest three basic changes that would actually start to solve them.
1) Woo China as a partner, rather than attack it as an opponent. Because in the long run, we can't win a competition with China. But we can share the benefits of their accomplishments.
2) Reestablish an effective self-governing democracy that is actually controlled by the American people rather than a very narrow ruling eli
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2 & 3 are the same thing.
You cannot have a democracy where you have a handful of people with god-tier wealth relative to everyone else. They have too much power over every aspect of the nation.
The solution is to admit capitalism suffers runaway conditions, and patch it with a wealth tax that grows as you get further from the median wealth, and give that money to those on the other side of the wealth Bell curve.
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You cannot have a democracy where you have a handful of people with god-tier wealth relative to everyone else.
Why is power connected to wealth? It shouldn't be. One person, one vote.
But if you want your name and face to appear as a candidate for political office, you need to buy that exposure from the mainstream media. Or you are effectively a non person. MSM wants it that way because they run the toll booths on the roads to political office. And any attempt to change the system will get zero press coverage. Because that would entail the media shooting itself in the foot.
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>Why is power connected to wealth? It shouldn't be. One person, one vote.
They're the same thing. If I have enough money, I can probably pay someone do to anything I want - including things that are unethical, immoral, or illegal. In fact, with enough money, I can just threaten to use my money to destroy people, and they'll do what I want for free unless they have a similar warchest.
Your vote means little if I can buy entire media empires to propagandize the population and bribe politicians. The law m
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Your vote means little
Why? No matter what you say through your newly purchased media empire, you need me to vote for your candidate. You can inundate me with bullshit. But I still won't vote for your guy. And if he doesn't make it into office, you don't get your favorable legislation.
I think this is what Bezos came to realize when, after having bought the WP, he had to tell them not to endorse a candidate. Because people would see right through the plan and do more damage than good for the people he wanted to support.
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Why?
Because you only have one vote that influences the outcome of one election. People with money can spend as much as they want to influence every election. If you don't think they can influence you, you are wrong.
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Why is power connected to wealth? It shouldn't be. One person, one vote.
Because the Supreme Court said so in Citizens United.
Money = speech, so the more money you have, the more you get heard by elected representatives.
If you want to fix it, you start there.
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the more money you have, the more you get heard by elected representatives.
But where does that money go (legally)? Toward their campaigns. What do they use it for? Buying advertising time on broadcast media and space in periodicals or websites. What would happen if that need went away, either through "equal time" regulations or other rules about how they are allowed to present themselves to the voters? The demand for more and more contributions would go away. Any more money than the limit would do them no good and may become a problem if they have to account for its proper disposi
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And none of that is possible until Citizens United is shitcanned.
We *had* campaign finance reform under McCain - Feingold. It put contribution limits in place, and got corporate "soft" money out. And Citizens United shit all over everything in that law except for the foreign money ban.
And campaigns use money for a lot more than just advertising. Yes, that's a big chunk of it, but they also pay for the candidate's travel along with the necessary staff, set up and pay for events renting venues, paying for
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Create a congress where there are members who face the same problems in their lives as typical Americans. One way to do that would be to ratify the 11 Amendment of the Bill of Rights that was never ratified. It would have guaranteed that the size of house districts can not exceed 50,000 people.
You're going to need a bigger Capitol building if you're going to have 6800 members of the House of Representatives (based on a population of 340 million). On the plus side, that should pretty much erase the small-state advantage provided by having an Electoral College vote for each Senator.
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You're going to need a bigger Capitol building if you're going to have 6800 members of the House of Representatives (based on a population of 340 million).
Yes, you would be talking about a very different body. That's part of the point.
One possibility would be that members are going to be hearing more from their constituents than lobbyists. It think it would be pretty tough for any individual lobbyist to put together 3400 votes for something without substantial help from people in individual districts. In other words, the people are in power. They need to be actively engaged to get anything done.
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> We all know whatever problems the United States has were not caused by our ruling elite. They are Trump's fault
Who do you think put Trump in power?
No Trump fan, but for him to be the President (again), there have already been multiple, systemic failures in a variety of different 'pillars' of your democracy.
Baloney (Score:2)
No, seriously .. baloney. They will make lab grown baloney and it'll be so cheap that all other food sales will collapse and that'll be the only thing left to eat. Chinese baloney.
China particularly good (Score:2)
Now it's biotech? (Score:3)
We just got done ringing the alarm bell on AI. Sure seems like someone is angling for federal spending.
This is important. (Score:2)
It requires careful consideration, targeted and well-placed funding, backing and championing by the right people, careful oversight, and strategic thinking.
Good fucking luck with that.
They're playing fast and loose. (Score:1)