We have published quite a few articles by Mei Yonghong. This long-time government official turned biotech executive sits at a rare and interesting intersection of Beijing’s science bureaucracy and China’s private genomics sector, giving him an unusually system-wide view of how China’s S&T ambition collides with U.S.-led tech controls, seen not from academia but from inside a company under intense external pressure.

Before becoming director and executive vice-president of China’s private BGI Group, one of the world’s leading genomics organisations and a “biotechnology company of concern” in Washington’s parlance, Mei served as mayor of Jining in Shandong province from 2010 to 2015, and earlier, held senior posts at China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, including deputy director-general of the General Office, director-general of the Research Office, and director-general of the Department of Policy, Regulation, and System Reform.

Mei delivered the following remarks on 1 December during the 2025 Understanding China Conference, an annual forum held under the auspices of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and convened each year after the conclusion of a plenary session of the CPC Central Committee or a CPC National Congress.

In his speech, Mei argued that U.S.-led decoupling has exposed how dependent China remains on Western tools, equipment, and data, turning the tech stand-off into a structural clash “unseen in a century” between American technological hegemony and China’s sovereign right to develop. Yet he insists China should neither retreat from global engagement nor accept a permanent follower role, arguing instead that it can now act as a major contributor of knowledge, a transferor of technology to the Global South and an organiser of “big science” projects that will help shape the next phase of global innovation.

—Yuxuan Jia

These remarks were originally published on 4 November on the official WeChat blog of Huagu Biotechnology and Bioindustry Research Institute, a non-governmental, non-profit think tank set up in 2023 by biotech and agricultural companies in China, including BGI’s affiliates.

梅永红：坚持科技对外开放——在2025读懂中国国际会议上的演讲

Mei Yonghong: Stay Committed to S&T Opening Up—Speech at the 2025 Understanding China Conference

China’s scientific and technological development is facing profound changes. Domestically, S&T capabilities are improving, and the demands of economic and social development are becoming more urgent. Externally, China is confronted with S&T decoupling efforts led by the United States and its Western allies. I remain convinced that opening up is