China is now a genetic engineering superpower

China has done more patent applications in recent years than Europe and the United States combined. It is true in general applied biology, but also specifically for plant breeding with Crispr-Cas9 method.

Figures from Espacenet, a patent database managed by the European Patent Office is showing exactly that. It contains worldwide published patent documents. In China, the number of Crispr-Cas9 publications increased from 200 in 2016 to 850 in 2020. By comparison, in the US it is 150 and 500 (in 2020), while in Europe only 140 applications were made in 2020, compared to 47 in 2016.

In general, the number of patent applications in China has increased considerably in recent years and it is not clear how many of the applications have actually been accepted.