They don't really beat around the bush: > The Chinese government has formulated policies to support the use of big data and modern techniques to drive new disc

They don't really beat around the bush: > The Chinese government has formulated policies to support the use of big data and modern techniques to drive new discoveries and cures by analyzing large healthcare, genomic, and other personal health data sets. China’s State Council treats the role of big data in health and medicine as a national priority, and China is building national and regional health and big data centers in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Nanjiang, and Changzhoi. China has also launched a 60 billion yuan ($9.3 billion) precision medicine initiative that will benefit from this capability. > China’s biotech companies have access to healthcare and genomic data on US persons through various channels, including investments and partnerships. At least 23 companies with a nexus to China are certified according to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), giving them direct access to US medical and health data via their participation in our healthcare system. > Compared to other nations, the US has fewer protections on sharing of medical and healthcare data, including internationally, facilitating foreign access to data on US persons. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protects identifiable information more strongly than any US regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). China’s laws go even further, preventing export of data on Chinese persons and requiring a permit for each research use of genomic information. > China’s efforts to acquire US health data combined with limited data protections by the US raise questions about national security. Theoretically, access to private information on security-sensitive US persons creates a risk of blackmail and may reveal health conditions exploitable in a targeted attack, although no public reports suggest this has yet happened or is a current aim of the Chinese Government or industry. > China has numerous laws requiring or authorizing access to private-sector data by the central government, ostensibly for national security reasons. While it is difficult to discern the level of access afforded to the Chinese government through these laws, their vagueness when it comes to oversight could allow collection of data to go relatively unchecked. > The US is not moving as aggressively as China to advance the use of big data in healthcare, and that could, over time, open an innovation gap. The US can prevent this outcome by investing in its own infrastructure, knowledge base and scientific enterprise.