Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief.
The highlights this week: The death of a Chinese child in a gene-editing trial sparks outrage, COVID-19 cases surge across China, and South Korea’s stock market plummets in response to Chinese chipmaking advances.
Fatal Gene-Editing Trial Sparks Outrage
A joint investigation by Science and Retraction Watch into the death of a Chinese child during a gene-editing trial—and the subsequent cover-up—has sparked outrage online.
Six-year-old Mei, a pseudonym, had a genetic defect that caused moderate learning difficulties. Her parents, a well-off professional couple, enrolled her in a gene-editing trial led by prominent neuroscientist Zilong Qiu at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, which is affiliated with the elite Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
