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Hong Kong has revoked the visa of He Jiankui, a controversial Chinese scientist who edited the gene of babies.
The Chinese scientist’s visa was revoked for giving false information, the Hong Kong authorities said on Tuesday.
Immigration officials in Hong Kong believed that Mr Jiankui, who sparked international controversy and ethical debate in 2018 after creating the world’s first “gene-edited” babies resistant to HIV, had lied on the application form for a talent scheme.
Nearly five years ago, at an international conference in Hong Kong, Mr Jiankui announced that he had achieved a scientific breakthrough by modifying two embryos before they were placed in their mother’s womb, using a technology known as CRISPR-Cas9.
Hong Kong revoked Jiankui’s work visa and launched an investigation after the public condemned the government in the wake of the news that the convicted scientist was granted one, despite having a criminal record in China for medical malpractice.
“After reviewing the application, the Immigration Department suspected the visa/entry permit was obtained by false representation, and the Director of Immigration had declared the visa/entry permits invalid in accordance with the law, and would conduct a criminal investigation to follow up,” said the Hong Kong government.
In December 2019, a court in Shenzhen, China, sentenced Mr Jiankui to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of £360,320 for breaking China’s regulations by carrying out scientific research and practising medicine without a licence after it was suspended a year earlier.
Despite criticism from many international health experts, Mr Jiankui maintained that his scientific research and experiments were to help the poor.
He opened a laboratory in Beijing solely for developing affordable drugs for rare genetic diseases.
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