The Chinese company Boyalife has signed a deal to build a $31 million cloning factory in Tianjin, a city approximately 100 miles from Beijing. The company has plans to bring its operations online in the first half of 2016 with plans on cloning 1 million cows a year by 2020 as well as replications of racehorses and police dogs, according to multiple media sources.
The CEO and lead scientist of this factory says that they now have technology capable of replicating human beings.
In a quote released by Breitbart, Xu Xiaochun, the 44-year-old Chairman of the Boyalife group remarked, “The technology is already there,”and added “If this is allowed, I don’t think there are other companies better than Boyalife that make better technology.”
“Unfortunately, currently, the only way to have a child is to have it be half its mum, half its dad,” said Xu. “Maybe in the future you have three choices instead of one. You either have fifty-fifty, or you have a choice of having the genetics 100 percent from Daddy or 100 percent from Mummy.”
In a report by CBS and AFP, Boyalife has joined forced with Sooam Biotech, a South Korean research company, that has already been quite successful at cloning pets for grieving owners. The market for deceased pets is reportedly extremely popular, with some people willing to pay up to $100,000 to bring a departed pet back to life.
In the CBS report, critics communicated feeling uneasy about the current cloning plans because Sooam Biotech founder, animal cloning pioneer Woo-suk Hwang, was convicted in 2009 of embezzling research funds and illegally buying human eggs for his research.
“Anything connected to Woo-suk is going to be suspect,” said Jaydee Hanson, senior policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety. “I’m not expecting Boyalife to be around for long,” he added.
Boyalife Group Board Chairman Xiaochun, said in a press statement on the company’s website that Chinese farmers are struggling to produce enough beef cattle to meet market demand. He said that the center will produce 100,000 cattle embryos a year, eventually increasing to 1 million.
CBS reported that many people took to social media to express their apprehension of eating cloned meat.
“This beef definitely must first be saved just for the central government leaders; only after they and their families have eaten it for 10 years should they deign to give it to us, the people! Really can’t wait!” one commenter said.
Another asked: “Is this meat going to be sold in South Korea or China? If in China, please make our leaders eat it first.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled in 2008 that food from cloned animals is safe to eat.
In an article by AFP, Han Lanzhi, a GMO safety specialist at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said Boyalife’s claims about the safety, scope and timeline of their operations were alarming — and implausible.
“To get approval for the safety of cloned animals would be a very drawn-out process, so when I heard this news, I felt very surprised,” she said.
“There must be strong regulation because as a company pursuing its own interests, they could very easily do other things in the future,” she added.
