China's environmental protection department on Tuesday voiced its concern that the country could become a laboratory for foreign companies' transgenic products due to a lack of legislation on the safe use of biotechnology.

A document released by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said some foreign companies could take advantage of loopholes in Chinese law to bring transgenic products into the country, making it "a laboratory for transgenic products" and posing unknown health risks for the Chinese people.

Meanwhile, in the pursuit of economic interests some people in China were blindly developing transgenic technology, without considering possible risks to the environment and human health over a long period, the SEPA document said.

Due to the lack of legislation on the acquisition, sharing of interests in and patents for genetic resources, some of which may hold the key to a cure for disease or improving grain harvests, many foreign companies had been unable to legally obtain resources in China, while some had spirited the resources overseas, the SEPA document said.

China needed laws to ensure the safe use of biological technology, and to protect its diversified genetic resources from abuse or theft by other countries, said SEPA official Wang Dehui.

The administration was now working with the Science and Technology Ministry on the draft of a regulation on biological safety, which was likely to become law in the future, Wang said.

China still lacked a nationwide law on the integrated management of research, trials, production and cross-border transfers of living modified organisms (LMOs), he said, stressing that existing regulations made specific requirements but were far from being unified for better efficiency.

Preparing legislation to protect genetic resources and prevent the introduction of alien invasive species which could destroy China's ecosystem, was also underway, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2002)