Activists Go on Warpath Against Transgenic Crops—and Scientists
积极分子行动起来反对转基因农作物和有关科学家

BEIJING—Events took an ominous turn soon after the host invited questions from the audience. At the podium, geneticist Zhang Qifa had just delivered a lecture at China Agricultural University here last November on the functional rice genome and boosting crop yields. A pioneer in developing and testing genetically modified (GM) varieties of rice in China, Zhang leads scores of researchers and students in his rice genomics and biotechnology laboratory at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan. His achievements have made him a scientific superstar in China—and to a band of anti-GM activists, Public Enemy Number One.

北京——在主持人请听众提问的时候，情况急转直下。事情发生在去年的11月，主席台上，遗传学家张启发刚刚在中国农业大学作了一个演讲，谈论有关稻米基因的原理与提高粮食产量的问题。张先生是中国的一位转基因稻米开发和实验先锋，在其华中农业大学的稻米基因和生物技术实验室里他统领着不少科研人员和学生。他的成就使他成为中国科技界的一位超级明星，而对于一帮反对转基因的积极分子来说，他则是第一号国民公敌。

After Zhang deflected the first question, a young man in an orange jacket sprang to his feet. Reciting from a piece of paper, he peppered Zhang with questions about GM crop safety and whether scientists have illegally distributed transgenic seeds to farmers. Zhang and the host declined to answer, promising that a public forum would address such concerns. A woman then blurted out, “Zhang Qifa is a traitor!” and accused him of using 1.3 billion Chinese as lab mice. Next, an older man approached the podium, picked up a ceramic tea mug from the front row, and hurled it, missing Zhang.

在张回答了第一个问题之后，一个穿着橘黄色夹克衫的年轻男子突然跳上台，照着一张纸念起来，密集地问张关于转基因农作物的安全问题和是否有科学家向农民非法散发转基因种子。张和主持人拒绝回答，答应说会有一个公共论坛回答有关问题。一位妇女接着喊出：“张启发，你这个卖国贼！”然后指责他把十三亿中国人民当成实验室里的小白鼠。在后来，一位老者靠近主席台，拿起第一排的桌子上的一个陶瓷茶杯投掷出去，没有打中张。

“It was a dangerous situation,” says geneticist Yan Jianbing, who works in China for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center of El Batán, Mexico. Several professors hustled Zhang out of the room while Yan called the police. By the time they arrived, the provocateurs had left.

“情况很危险，”在中国为总部位于墨西哥巴丹城的国际玉米小麦改良中心工作的遗传学者严建兵表示。在其他几位教授催促张离开房间的同时，严电话报警。警察到来时，破坏分子已经离开了。

Ever since the Chinese government awarded safety certificates in November 2009 to two GM rice varieties and a variety of GM maize, Zhang and other researchers have come under increasing fire. The anti-GM backlash in China is driven in part by Greenpeace and scientists who are raising long-standing concerns about possible ecological and health effects of transgenic crops. But one organization is turning up the heat and making researchers like Zhang duck for cover: Wu You Zhi Xiang, a loose knit group known in English as Utopia.

自从中国政府在2009年11月授予了两种转基因稻米和一种转基因玉米安全证书以后，张和其他的研究者迎来了越来越多的攻击。中国的反转基因运动部分得到了绿色和平组织和一些科学家的支持，这些科学家担心转基因农作物可能带来长期性的的生态和健康影响。但是有一个组织掀起了热浪，使得张浮出水面：乌有之乡，一个松散联系的群体，在英语中这个名字的意思是Utopia（乌托邦）。

In the past year, Utopia activists and sympathizers have disrupted several scientific meetings; Yan and others suspect they were behind the incident at China Agricultural University as well. Things could get hotter still. Utopia, which considers itself the standard-bearer of the Chinese “New Left”and espouses nationalist sentiments, is gathering signatures on an open letter denouncing GM crops. The letter alleges that China is being exploited by agribusinesses such as Monsanto and calls for the revocation of the safety certificates for GM rice. It plans to submit the missive to the National People’s Congress, an annual conclave starting 5 March that will help steer the government’s work plan for the coming year.

在去年，乌有之乡的积极分子和同情者已经破坏了几个科技会议，严和其他人怀疑他们也是中国农业大学事件的背后力量。情况还在继续升温。乌有之乡自认为是中国“新左派”运动的旗手，宣传民族主义情感，现在正在征集一个要求废止转基因农作物的公开信的签名。公开信称中国已经被像孟山都这样的跨国农业综合企业剥削，要求撤销发给转基因稻米的安全证书。还计划把信发到全国人民代表大会，这是一个最高议会性质的年度会议，每年3月5日开始举行，帮助政府执行下一年度的工作计划。

Few observers expect Utopia’s petition to sway the Chinese government, which has enshrined transgenic crop R&D as a top priority. And Utopia’s agitation so far appears to have had little influence on public opinion: In a poll in several Chinese cities last summer led by Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) here, 61% of respondents viewed GM rice favorably, only a slight downtick from recent years. But Utopia’s actions may well slow commercialization of GM foods. Zhang’s team and independent labs spent 15 years testing the safety of GM rice. Now he believes it could be another decade or more before GM rice is approved for commercial planting—assuming the safety certificates are renewed.

一些观察家希望乌有之乡的呼吁能影响把转基因农作物的科研和开发奉若神明、当成首要任务的中国政府。就目前来看，乌有之乡的鼓动对公众意见的影响还很小：在去年夏天由中国科学院农业政策研究中心主任黄纪昆主持的一项在几个中国城市进行的民意调查显示，有61%的回应支持转基因，只在最近几年比例略有下降。但是乌有之乡的举动可能会延缓转基因食品的商业化。张的团队和独立实验室花费了十五年时间测试转基因稻米的安全性，现在他认为转基因稻米被批准商业化还要花上又一个十年——在假定安全证书可以更新的基础上。

Scientists and officials acknowledge they were blindsided by Utopia’s heated attacks. “The government never expected the public would be so anti-GM,” says Lin Min, director of the Biotechnology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) here. According to a rough tally by Science, in the past several months at least 10,000 critiques of GM rice—some substantive, many without merit—have been posted on popular blogging sites in China.

科学家和官员们承认他们没有防备到乌有之乡的强烈攻击。“政府从来就没有预料到公众会这样反对转基因，”中国农业科学院生物技术研究所所长林敏表示。根据《科学》杂志过去几个月的粗略统计，在中国的主要博客网站上至少有上万篇批评转基因稻米的文章——有些比较客观，多数全盘否定。

Science in China is closely aligned with state ideology and power, says an academic here who belongs to Scientific Culturati, an unabashedly anti-science group of Chinese scholars. By opposing GM crops, he argues, Utopia and its allies see themselves as standing up to corruption and special interests.

在中国科学和国家意识形态和权利紧密结合，一位属于“科学文化人”的学者总结道，这是一个不加掩饰地反对科学化的中国学者组织。通过反对转基因农作物，他争论道：乌有之乡及其同盟者认为他们在反抗腐败和特权。