China has no plans to conduct human cloning following the success of its monkey trial, according to a report by Chinese newspaper Science and Technology Daily.
The recent birth of two identical long-tailed macaques - Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua - marked the first time primates have been cloned using the same cloning technique that made Dolly the sheep.
While the achievement was seen as a breakthrough, critics raised ethical concerns about the research and suggested it could ultimately lead to human cloning.
However, in order to suit the rapid development of biotechnology, China formed an ethical review system for scientific research in the 1990s. A committee has also been established in accordance with the request of ethical assessment of international projects.
In addition, a series of codes and regulations have been formed to guide scientific research, restraining and even closing those substandard projects.
According to a document issued by the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology in December 2003, human reproductive cloning is prohibited. Though therapeutic cloning is permitted, it must conform to the codes, the document said.
