There are not many agents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation like Ed You. In a workforce that cultivates anonymity, his clean-shaven head gleams. While most of his colleagues are notoriously tight-lipped, Mr You is the chatty star of technology conferences such as South-by-Southwest and DEFCON.在美国联邦调查局(FBI)，没很多特工像埃德?奇(Ed You)那样。在这个希望工作人员让自己看起来平淡无奇的工作环境中，他那剃得锃亮的光头十分出色。

尽管他的多数同事都是出了名的口风森严，但奇毕竟科技会议上健谈的明星，例如西南偏南大会(South-by-Southwest)和拉斯维加斯国际黑客大会(DEFCON)。He is also at the forefront of a potential dispute between the US and China, which could have implications for both commercial relations between the world’s two biggest economies and for the future of biomedical research.他还处在一场中美潜在争端的前沿，这场争端有可能对这两个全球仅次于经济体的商业关系以及生物医学研究的未来产生影响。The high profile that Mr You has adopted is part of an unusual FBI campaign to highlight the risks in America’s headlong pursuit to unlock the secrets of the human genome. A supervisory special agent in the bureau’s biological countermeasures unit, Mr You warns that the US is not protecting the genomic data used to create lucrative new medicines — but which can also be used to develop fearsome bioweapons.尤的高调作风是FBI一项不同寻常的行动的一部分，该行动的目的是引人注目美国匆忙谋求密码人类基因组秘密的风险。作为FBI生物对策部门一位负责管理监管的特工，奇警告称之为，美国没维护用来生产有利可图的新药的基因组数据，而这些数据有可能还被用来研发可怕的生化武器。

“We don’t know how much bio data has left our shores,” he says. “Our concept for biological security needs to be broadened.”“我们不告诉有多少生物数据流到了国外，”他回应，“我们对生物学安全性的概念必须不断扩大。”That has led him to focus on China, which the veteran lawman says is gaining access to US genomic data — the biological software that governs human organisms. In recent years, Chinese investors have purchased stakes in, or partnered with, US biomedical companies that specialise in genomics. At the same time, state-sponsored hackers believed to be Chinese have penetrated the laboratories, health insurers and hospitals where other valuable patient records reside. Mr You suggests stricter controls might be needed on what sort of health data can be transferred overseas — to China and elsewhere.这让他注目中国，这位经验丰富的执法者回应，中国于是以提供美国基因组数据，即管理人体的组织的生物软件。

最近几年，中国投资者售予专门研究基因组的美国生物医学公司的股权或与它们合作。同时，据信为中国人的、由政府资助的黑客藏身了存放在其他最重要患者记录的实验室、身体健康保险公司和医院。

奇指出，在哪些身体健康数据可以移往到海外（中国和其他国家）方面，有可能必须强化掌控。Nearly two decades after the first human genome was decoded, the field is one of the most exciting in biomedical research — and one that relies on an open network of international collaboration.在第一个人类基因组被解密近20年后，该领域沦为生物医学研究最令人兴奋的领域之一，它倚赖对外开放的国际合作网络。But it is also the latest area where national security questions — about Chinese objectives and the links between its companies and the state — are leading to calls for important sectors of the US economy to be ringfenced.但也正是在这一领域，国家安全性问题（有关中国的目的以及中国企业与政府的关系）于是以使得一些人收到维护美国经济最重要行业的呼声。Since the 2014 decision to bar Huawei from selling into parts of the US telecoms infrastructure market, America has blocked Chinese acquisitions of a wind turbine company in Oregon, a California cloud computing firm, and the US-based division of a German semiconductor maker. The Pentagon has raised concerns about Chinese investment in artificial intelligence.自2014年美国禁令华为(Huawei)转入美国电信基础设施市场部分领域以来，美国制止了中国企业并购一家俄勒冈州风力涡轮公司、一家加州云计算公司以及一家德国半导体制造商在美国的分公司。

美国国防部对中国在人工智能领域的投资深感忧虑。Traditionally, the FBI’s weapons of mass destruction directorate has concentrated on preventing toxins such as Ebola or anthrax from falling into the wrong hands — and contributing to the spread of new germ weapons.FBI的大规模杀伤性武器部门传统上主要注目防止埃博拉(Ebola)或炭疽病毒等病毒落到不法分子手中并造成新的细菌武器蔓延。

Now, the bureau fears that digital data sets may prove just as lethal. The concerns about large volumes of US genetic data being scooped up help explain why a law enforcement agency is tracking the potential loss of US competitive advantage. “The economic impact is the principal near-term threat — the monetisation of large data sets,” says Mr You.如今FBI担忧，事实有可能证明，数字数据集也具备某种程度的杀伤力。对美国大量基因数据于是以被肆意搜集的忧虑，有助说明为何一家执法人员机构要跟踪美国竞争优势的潜在失去。

奇回应：“经济影响是主要的近期威胁：大规模数据集的所求。”Some observers believe the US government is right to ask questions about the implications of Chinese investment in genomics. “I’ve never seen an agency, the FBI, come out of the woodwork like this,” said Michael Wessel, a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressionally-chartered advisory body. “This is a critical area that needs a lot more attention?.?.?.?It’s a real threat.”一些仔细观察人士指出，美国政府就中国在基因组领域投资的影响明确提出疑惑是准确之荐。“我未曾看见过FBI忽然冒出来这么做到，”美国国会批准后创立的顾问的组织——美中经济与安全性评估委员会(US-China Economic and Security Review Commission)成员迈克尔?韦赛尔(Michael Wessel)回应，“这个关键领域必须更加多注目……这是确实的威胁。”Others worry that it would be damaging for the US to put up excessive barriers to Chinese biomedical investment. Dan Rosen, founding partner at the Rhodium Group in New York, points out that China has invested more than $3.2bn in the US biotech and pharmaceuticals sector over the past five years — cash that often brings with it talented Chinese scientists. In some disciplines, such as large-scale, low-cost gene sequencing, China leads the US. If Chinese companies become less welcome in the US, he says, they will go elsewhere.另有一些人担忧，美国对中国生物医学投资设置过多障碍将是破坏性的。

纽约荣鼎咨询(Rhodium Group)创立合伙人丹?罗森(Dan Rosen)认为，过去5年，中国在美国生物技术和制药领域投资逾32亿美元，随之而来的往往是杰出的中国科学家。在一些领域，例如大规模低成本基因测序领域，中国领先于美国。他回应，如果中国公司在美国显得不那么热门，他们不会到别处去。“I don’t think drawing a line around biotech and calling the entire industry a critical sector is going to do the trick,” said Mr Rosen. “We’re going to have to maintain the ability to look at investments case by case.”“我指出环绕生物技术划界界限并把整个行业称作关键行业会超过目的，”罗森回应，“我们必需需要之后对投资具体情况具体分析。

”The promise of genomics is a new era of precision targeted drugs that make traditional one-size-fits-all medicine look like a second world war dumb bomb. But treatments that are customised for a patient’s individual genetic make-up remain in their early stages.基因组研究未来将会带给精准靶向药物的新时代，这种药物使传统的标准化药物看上去就看起来二战时的傻瓜炸弹。但针对病人个人基因组的自定义化疗方案依然正处于早期阶段。

Both the US, the acknowledged global leader, and China are pursuing personalised treatments for diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis or Alzheimer’s. China last year unveiled a $9bn 15-year research initiative, dwarfing an Obama-era plan that earmarked $215m for the National Institutes of Health.美国（目前普遍认为的全球领头羊）和中国都在大力研究癌症、囊性纤维化和阿尔茨海默症(Alzheimers)等疾病的个人化化疗。去年中国发布了一项90亿美元的15年研究计划，令其奥巴马时代为美国国家卫生研究院(NIH)经费2.15亿美元的计划相形见绌。DNA science has leapfrogged since 2000 when the human genome was first sequenced. What once required years of work and cost billions of dollars now takes less than a week and costs just $1,000. The US is gathering genetic data from more than 1m volunteers, so that automated lab systems can investigate how individual genes interact.自从2000年首次对人类基因组测序后，DNA科学呈现出进步式发展。

曾多次必须花费数年时间、数十亿美元的工作，如今用1000美元将近一周就能搞定。美国正在从逾100万名志愿者搜集基因数据，以便自动化实验室系统可以研究个人基因如何相互作用。“The first problem is having access to data?.?.?.?You need a lot of data,” says Eleonore Pauwels at the Wilson Center in Washington.“第一个问题是数据……你必须很多数据，”坐落于华盛顿的威尔逊中心(Wilson Center)的埃莱奥诺雷?健韦尔斯(Eleonore Pauwels)回应。

Beijing’s ambitions in this area have led some Chinese companies to go on the acquisition trail — especially in the US. In January, for example, iCarbonX of Shenzhen, which aims to create personalised health treatments by combining AI with large pools of genetic data, invested more than $100m in PatientsLikeMe. The US company says it is the world’s largest personalised health network with more than 500,000 individuals sharing their medical details. PatientsLikeMe, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says that its data are anonymised and retained on US-based servers.北京方面在该领域的野心使得一些中国企业踏上并购之路——特别是在美国。例如，1月深圳的碳云智能（iCarbonX，目的把人工智能和大型基因数据库融合一起以打造出个性化身体健康化疗方案）向PatientsLikeMe投资逾1亿美元。这家美国公司自称为全球仅次于的个性化健康网，逾50万人在此共享了医疗细节。

坐落于马萨诸塞州坎布里奇的PatientsLikeMe回应，其数据是电子邮件的，存放在美国境内的服务器。That kind of data — stored in 100 gigabyte to 1 terabyte digital files — could be used to develop new drugs. Laboratories gather enormous numbers of such files, then combine them with detailed demographic, diet, health and lifestyle records. Supercomputers search for patterns, identifying genetic malfunctions and suggesting new remedies.这类数据——储存在100 GB到1TB的文件内——可以用作研发新的药物。实验室搜集海量此类数据，之后把它们与详尽的人口统计、饮食习惯、身体健康和生活方式等记录数据结合。

超级计算机找寻规律，辨识基因缺失并获取新的化疗建议。The same data sets can, however, be used to develop bioweapons. The FBI, which first raised its biomedicine concerns in late 2014, has not officially offered any policy recommendations. Mr You, who has a masters degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, suggests tightening regulations on health records to make it harder to transfer them overseas.然而，某种程度的数据集也可以用作研发生物武器。FBI于2014年末首次明确提出对生物医学的忧虑，目前仍未月明确提出政策建议。享有生物化学和分子生物学硕士学位的奇建议，放宽身体健康记录方面的法规，使之更加无以移往到海外。

Although most of the Trump administration’s top science jobs are vacant, Mr You insists the FBI’s concerns are “starting to get more traction” inside government.尽管特朗普政府在科技领域的大多数高级职位目前仍正处于遗缺，但奇坚决指出FBI的疑虑早已开始在政府内“产生更大影响”。Outside Washington, views are mixed. “I don’t think he’s an alarmist. He’s raising some questions that need to be asked and answered,” says Ben Shobert, senior associate at the National Bureau of Asian Research.政府之外，人们的观点不一。“我不指出他是杞人忧天。他明确提出了一些必须明确提出和问的问题，”美国国家亚洲研究局(National Bureau of Asian Research)高级研究员本?肖伯特(Ben Shobert)回应。

But Bernard Munos, senior fellow at the Milken Institute’s FasterCures, says the bureau’s concerns are exaggerated. “What they can steal from us is data,” he says of competitors. “Data are a necessary ingredient, but not sufficient. You need bright people who are going to extract knowledge from that data and from that knowledge imagine potential new treatments. At the moment, the capabilities of the Chinese to do that are limited.”但麦肯研究院(Milken Institute) FasterCures中心的高级研究员伯纳德?穆尼奥斯(Bernard Munos)称之为，FBI的忧虑滑稽了。“他们能从我们这里偷走的是数据，”他这样说道竞争对手，“数据是必要条件，但不是充分条件。你必须聪明人从数据中萃取科学知识，再行根据科学知识设想有可能的新疗法。

现在，中国人构建这一点的能力受限。”FBI officials recognise that science is a global endeavour that would wither if confined within national borders.FBI官员意识到，科学是一项全球希望，如果局限在国界线内，这项希望将不会困窘。The US Human Genome Project, for instance, would have taken far longer without help from the UK, Germany, France, Japan and China. And roughly 40 per cent of the biomedical scientists in the US hail from China or India, according to Mr Munos.例如，如果没英国、德国、法国、日本和中国的协助，美国人类基因组计划(Human Genome Project)不会花费更加长时间。

穆尼奥斯回应，美国大约40%的生物医学科学家来自中国或印度。“US biomedical research could hardly function today without this contingent of people,” he says. “The collaboration is an essential part.”“如果没这些人，美国生物医学研究今天很难运转，”他回应，“合作是必不可少的部分。”That’s why cross-border deals so far have faced few objections. In 2013, the US government’s committee on foreign investment (Cfius) approved BGI-Shenzhen’s purchase of Complete Genomics in California, which has sequenced more than 20,000 human genomes.这就是迄今为止跨境并购完全没遭赞成的原因。

2013年，美国政府外国投资委员会(Cfius)批准后了深圳华大基因(BGI-Shenzhen)并购坐落于加州的原始基因公司(Complete Genomics)。后者对多达2万个人类基因组展开了测序。Today such a deal might be rejected, says Mr Wessel, a member of the US-China Commission. One reason is a lack of reciprocity. Even as Chinese groups take stakes in US biomedical companies, Chinese regulations prevent foreign companies from taking genetic data out of China, according to Mr Shobert.美中经济与安全性评估委员会成员韦赛尔回应，如今这样的交易有可能遭驳回。

其中一个原因是缺乏互助性。肖伯特回应，尽管中国企业股权了美国生物医学公司，但中国法规不容许外国企业将基因数据带上出有中国。Cfius also does not track most foreign loans, non-controlling investments of less than 10 per cent — such as the iCarbonX deal — or stakes in start-ups.美国外国投资委员会也不追踪大部分的外国贷款、股份严重不足10%的非有限公司性投资——比如碳云智能的并购——或对初创企业的大股东。“That’s what’s scaring the crap out of the FBI,” says Mr Rosen. “That the most early-stage interesting stuff, the stuff happening in garages, could get sort of infiltrated with Chinese money.”“最初期的有意思的东西，在车库里研究的东西，有可能被中国的资金渗入，这可把FBI看着了，”罗森回应。

In Congress, Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Republican leadership, plans to introduce legislation to expand government reviews of foreign investments to include joint ventures and other technology company acquisitions. “The status quo on investment from China is simply unsustainable,” Mr Cornyn said at a June Council on Foreign Relations event.在国会，共和党领导层成员、参议员约翰?康宁(John Cornyn)计划引进法律，将政府审查外国投资的范围不断扩大到合资企业和其他技术公司并购。“中国投资的现状是不可持续的，”康宁在美国外交关系委员会(Council on Foreign Relations) 6月一次活动中回应。Cross-border deals are not the only risks to US genetic data. The healthcare industry is notoriously vulnerable to cyber attacks. Though most public attention to date has centred on identity theft or pilfered credit card details, patient medical records are even more valuable, says Mr You. Some recent hacks involved “actual penetration and acquisition of clinical data”, he told the US-China commission in March.跨境并购不是美国基因数据面对的唯一风险。

医疗行业出了名的更容易受到网络攻击。奇回应，尽管迄今为止大多数公众注目都集中于在身份伪造或信用卡信息被盗上，但病人医疗记录往往更容易被盗取。他3月向美中经济与安全性评估委员会回应，最近一些黑客事件牵涉到“确实渗入和提供临床数据”。

In December, hackers infiltrated Quest Diagnostics, which boasts the world’s largest clinical lab database, and gained access to 34,000 patient records, including laboratory results.去年12月，黑客藏身探寻临床公司(Quest Diagnostics)获得了3.4万份病人记录，其中还包括实验室成果。该公司自居享有全世界仅次于的临床实验室数据库。Although there is no evidence of foreign involvement in that episode, hackers who US officials believe were operating on behalf of the Chinese government broke into Anthem’s networks in 2014 and spent a year rummaging through records of 78.8m customers, California regulators said in announcing a January settlement with the insurer.尽管没证据指出外国势力参予此次事件，但加州监管部门在1月宣告与保险商Anthem达成协议的妥协方案时回应，美国官员指出代表中国政府的黑客于2014年攻进了Anthem的网络，并且花上了一年的时间翻遍了7880万客户的记录。

“The healthcare industry in general is far less secure than many other industries and sectors out there. So the ability for a determined actor to get access to that type of information is certainly feasible if they’re motivated to do so,” says Charles Carmakal, vice-president at Mandiant, a cyber security company. “We just haven’t seen it yet.”“总体上，医疗保健行业近没其他很多行业和部门安全性。因此，如果下定决心的行动者有动力的话，他们的能力认同不足以取得此类信息，”网络安全公司曼迪昂特(Mandiant)的副总裁查尔斯?卡玛卡尔(Charles Carmakal)回应，“我们只是还没有遇上罢了。”Meanwhile, national security risks loom. The US government has long invested in defences against about 60 pathogens and 10 toxins that pose a “severe” health risk, including the Ebola virus, the H1N1 flu virus and ricin.与此同时，国家安全性风险若隐若现。

美国政府长期投资于抵挡不会导致“相当严重”身体健康风险的大约60种病原体和10种毒素的手段，还包括埃博拉病毒、H1N1流感病毒和蓖麻毒素等。But advances such as gene editing and next-generation DNA sequencing allow scientists to weaponise new viruses, perhaps including custom pathogens engineered to overcome existing immunities or to be impervious to current drugs. Some experts warn of bioweapons engineered to kill specific populations or even individuals.但基因编辑和新一代DNA测序等技术变革使得科学家可以把新病毒变为武器，也许还包括用自定义病原体攻陷现有免疫系统或抵抗现有药物的影响。一些专家对用来杀掉特定人群、甚至个人的生物武器收到了警告。Last year, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, included gene editing aimed at producing new biological weapons as among the nation’s top security threats. “The risks are real,” a White House scientific advisory panel said in November, “and will only grow as biotechnology becomes more sophisticated in the years ahead.”去年，国家情报总监詹姆斯?克拉珀(James Clapper)把目的生产新的生物武器的基因编辑列为国家仅次于安全性威胁。

“风险是实实在在的，”白宫一个科学顾问小组去年11月回应，“而且不会随着未来几年生物技术日益简单而更加危险性。”Insider threat: Scientist accused of stealing trade secrets内部威胁：科学家被控盗取行业机密With a PhD in biological chemistry and four patents to her name, Yu Xue was “one of the top protein biochemists in the world”, prosecutors said when they charged her with stealing trade secrets from her employer.享有生物化学博士学位和4项专利的薛瑜(Yu Xue)是“全世界最顶级的蛋白质生物化学家之一”，检察官在指控薛瑜从其供职公司盗取行业机密时回应。

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