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China’s State Council, the country’s top administrative authority, released a new Regulation of Human Genetic Resources (the "Regulation") on May 28, 2019, to replace the tentative rules issued in 1998. The Regulation, which will take effect on July 1, 2019, illustrates the Chinese government’s clear intent to position the regulation of HGRs as one of its national security priorities. Specifically, the Regulation closely scrutinizes all HGR-related activity from upstream collection of human biospecimens to downstream exploitation and sharing of the material and any data obtained from it. It formalizes the approval requirements pertinent to research collaborations between Chinese and foreign-owned (including both partially and wholly foreign-owned) entities to avoid uncertainty during the approval process. It also significantly increases and expands penalties for various violations of the Regulation.

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