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China's current eugenics movement has the potential of rewriting history
Conventionally, the concept of eugenics seems to be a plot straight out of Idiocracy or the imagination of Frank Herbert. Eugenics is actually an applied science of the biosocial movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population. Contrary to expectations, it is being practiced behind closed doors in various countries since centuries. For the uninitiated, China has been operating the world's largest and most successful eugenics program since the last 32 years.
The then reformist leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng Xiaoping, who came to the power after Mao’s death, had figured out that China’s success was critically dependent on population demographics apart from economic policies. Consequently, he drafted the ‘one-child policy’ to restrain China’s population. However, one of his most renowned strategies, “Comprehensive National Power”, was intended to create China as the global human capital hub. In order to materialise his ambition, the 1995 Maternal and Infant Health Law (also known as the Eugenic Law) was implemented to enforce prospective brides and grooms to undergo rigorous physical examinations to determine their fitness for reproduction. China has also implemented laws that restrict people with IQs lower than a defined standard, from having children.
The nation has been investing massively in genom research on human mental and physical traits. BGI-Shenzhen, one of the world’s premier genome sequencing centres, is sequencing more than 50,000 genomes per year. Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller’s report has highlighted that “the BGI Cognitive Genomics Project is currently doing whole-genome sequencing of 1,000 very-high-IQ people around the world, hunting for sets of IQ-predicting alleles. These IQ gene-sets will be found eventually – but will probably be used mostly in China, for China. Potentially, the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximise the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilised eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of ‘preimplantation embryo selection’ might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation.”
China is currently officially promoting eugenics but has a rather long history. Eugenics became a hysteria among not only scientists but also among physicians and lawmakers in US in 1900s. Additionally, Adolph Hittler attempted it more aggressively to create a 'pure line of Germans' in the 1930s. The eugenics movement had failed at the beginning as most of the traits studied by eugenicists had little genetic basis as it targeted for elimination of the 'unwanted' from the human population (complex and subjectively defined traits as "criminality," epilepsy and bipolar disorder) than inclusion of better programmed humans. However, scientists are more optimistic about the Chinese attempts; at the same time, China's recent radical sports achievements (especially at the Olympics) has also raised many eyebrows.
Conventionally, the concept of eugenics seems to be a plot straight out of Idiocracy or the imagination of Frank Herbert. Eugenics is actually an applied science of the biosocial movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population. Contrary to expectations, it is being practiced behind closed doors in various countries since centuries. For the uninitiated, China has been operating the world's largest and most successful eugenics program since the last 32 years.
The then reformist leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng Xiaoping, who came to the power after Mao’s death, had figured out that China’s success was critically dependent on population demographics apart from economic policies. Consequently, he drafted the ‘one-child policy’ to restrain China’s population. However, one of his most renowned strategies, “Comprehensive National Power”, was intended to create China as the global human capital hub. In order to materialise his ambition, the 1995 Maternal and Infant Health Law (also known as the Eugenic Law) was implemented to enforce prospective brides and grooms to undergo rigorous physical examinations to determine their fitness for reproduction. China has also implemented laws that restrict people with IQs lower than a defined standard, from having children.
The nation has been investing massively in genom research on human mental and physical traits. BGI-Shenzhen, one of the world’s premier genome sequencing centres, is sequencing more than 50,000 genomes per year. Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller’s report has highlighted that “the BGI Cognitive Genomics Project is currently doing whole-genome sequencing of 1,000 very-high-IQ people around the world, hunting for sets of IQ-predicting alleles. These IQ gene-sets will be found eventually – but will probably be used mostly in China, for China. Potentially, the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximise the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilised eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of ‘preimplantation embryo selection’ might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation.”
China is currently officially promoting eugenics but has a rather long history. Eugenics became a hysteria among not only scientists but also among physicians and lawmakers in US in 1900s. Additionally, Adolph Hittler attempted it more aggressively to create a 'pure line of Germans' in the 1930s. The eugenics movement had failed at the beginning as most of the traits studied by eugenicists had little genetic basis as it targeted for elimination of the 'unwanted' from the human population (complex and subjectively defined traits as "criminality," epilepsy and bipolar disorder) than inclusion of better programmed humans. However, scientists are more optimistic about the Chinese attempts; at the same time, China's recent radical sports achievements (especially at the Olympics) has also raised many eyebrows.
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