Espionage is becoming more and more rampant on the mainland! Why was the general manager of a domestic agricultural science and technology company sentenced to one and a half years in prison for stealing the parental seeds of hybrid rice and selling them abroad under the guise of cooperative seed production, thus endangering national security?
Rampant spies who steal and sell parental seeds
On April 14, 2024, CCTV News released that Zhu, the former general manager of a domestic agricultural technology company, sold 5 kinds of parental rice seeds to overseas spy and intelligence agencies in violation of regulations.
Foreign spies are everywhere and have put their crooked ideas on the mainland's food security. Under normal circumstances, foreign spies cannot easily get their hands on such important things, but there are too many leading parties in China who are profit-seeing.
Seeing that it was profitable, Zhu Moumou obtained the parental seeds of hybrid rice through various channels, and then disguised them as the appearance of another commodity, and stole them to be shipped to foreign spies.
After several successful transactions, Zhu made money and did not encounter any risks, he became more and more bold, and took the money obtained from selling secrets to set up an agricultural technology company and served as the general manager.
It is nominally an agricultural science and technology company, but in fact it has nothing to do with agricultural science and technology, and not only will it not promote the development of agriculture on the mainland, but on the contrary, it will bring great harm to the mainland's agriculture and food security.
Zhu's purpose in setting up the company is very simple, that is, he wants to use the company as a cover and provide parental seed resources to foreign spies in a grand manner under the guise of cooperative seed production.
In the name of an agricultural science and technology company, Zhu can justifiably cooperate with foreign institutions to produce seeds, and since he wants to "cooperate", he will inevitably provide seed resources to the other party.
It is precisely by taking advantage of this convenience that Zhu, as the general manager of the company, successively provided five kinds of hybrid rice parental seeds to foreign spies. The precious resources that scientific researchers have spent countless painstaking efforts to research have become tools for Zhu's illegal profits.
It is the policy of many countries to prohibit the sale of parent seeds abroad, and the same is true on the mainland. As a practitioner in the agricultural field, it is certainly impossible for Zhu not to know the relevant regulations of the state.
Knowing that the state prohibits it, but still trying to sell it illegally for profit, this is a typical violation of the law. Such a bad behavior is even more ashamed of Yuan Lao's spirit in the sky.
Endangering national interests and destroying food security, Zhu's practice was very bad, but such a bad behavior was finally sentenced to only one and a half years in prison, and the other 17 participants were only administratively punished, and they couldn't even commit a crime.
Such a light sentence for Zhu and others has caused heated discussions on the Internet, although "the online sentence is either life or death" is a bit unreasonable, but such a light sentence does not make many people expect.
endangering national security and seeking a lot of improper benefits, such a light sentence is not a punishment, but an encouragement to continue to work after he comes out, many netizens think so.
Important parental seeds
In the field of agriculture and horticulture, parental seeds are a vital part, and they are also important germplasm resources related to the food security of the mainland, and play a key role in crop breeding and planting.
Parental seeds, which are the primordial seeds used to propagate offspring, can be said to be the most primitive roots of a good crop. It is through parental seeds that agricultural scientists improve crops, eliminate undesirable traits, and inherit the remaining excellent traits.
In terms of genetics, parental seeds have strong purity and stability, and pass on the excellent genes they carry to the next generation. They are often used to produce hybrid seeds, or to carry out propagation experiments to promote better traits in the next generation of plants, such as greater disease resistance and higher yields.
The selection of parental seeds is directly related to the shape and genetic characteristics of the next generation of seeds. Therefore, an excellent parental seed has a very great impact on improving the yield and quality of crops.
This kind of seed requires a lot of labor and effort by scientific and technological personnel, and can only be obtained after a long period of cultivation and selection, and it is often something that cannot be found.
In the field of hybrid rice, parental seeds play a crucial role. Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", used wild rice male sterile strains to breed three-line hybrid rice, and the yield per mu was greatly increased.
The first is to maintain the genetic basis of rice. They carry genetic information that has been selected and cultivated over a long period of time, and these genetic information determines whether the next generation of rice is good or not.
By nurturing the next generation of rice seeds through parental seeds, it is possible to ensure to a greater extent that the newly bred varieties carry the genetic characteristics of the parental seeds.
Secondly, parental seeds are the basis for crop improvement. In the breeding process, the corresponding excellent genes are obtained by crossing different parental seeds, and then these excellent genes are solidified through the stable heritability of the parental seeds.
Selecting the right parental seeds plays an important role in the continuous improvement and progress of crops, and is also the foundation for the continuous development of agriculture in mainland China.
Third, we need to ensure the sustainable development of agriculture. With parental seeds with different genetic traits, crops can be more diverse and adaptable to different environments and climates.
Just like Yuan Lao's seawater rice, it can be grown on saline-alkali land and has a good yield. Before that, what kind of crops could grow on saline soil and be productive?
Although seawater rice does not taste as much rice on the market, it is limited to peacetime, and even if there is no bark to gnaw on in the event of war or famine, even if the rice tastes bad.
Usually people don't eat seawater rice, you may feel that seawater rice is a gimmick, in case you really use it, it is a life-saving food, after all, no matter how bad the taste is, it is rice, much stronger than bark grass roots.
It is precisely because of such an important role in the parental seed that it attracts the covetousness of foreign spies. Behind the foreign spies are foreign governments and large international grain merchants.
Parental seeds that have been lost throughout history
Now that science and technology have developed, the state has recognized the importance of parental seeds, and explicitly prohibits the sale of parental seeds abroad. In the past, when science and technology were not developed, no one understood the importance of parental seeds, so that they were obtained in large quantities by people with ulterior motives abroad.
This kind of thing can be traced back to the late 19th century, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a large number of technicians around the world to search for high-quality seeds.
At that time, the mainland was at the end of the Qing Dynasty and had become a colony of the world's great powers, and the Americans had no time to take care of other things, and these Americans obtained a large amount of wild soybean seeds from the mainland.
After returning to the United States with these wild soybean seeds, technicians have selected and cultivated them for generations, and finally cultivated a large number of high-quality soybean seeds, making the United States one of the countries with the largest soybean seed sources in the world today, and making huge profits from them every year.
American farmers planted soybeans in large quantities, and in the 50s of the 20th century, American soybeans suddenly encountered pests and diseases, and the infected soybeans would turn from green to yellow within a few days, and most of them would die.
Even if the soybean plants are lucky enough to survive the disease, the yield will be greatly affected or even directly extinct. Later, after research, it was found that this was caused by soybean cyst nematode disease.
For many years after that, American agricultural scientists and farmers were helpless against this strange disease, and once they contracted it, they could only consider themselves unlucky. In the end, it was a soybean seedling obtained from Beijing that was improved to increase the disease resistance gene of American soybeans.
Clever and recalcitrant, the United States has done similar things many times. Around 2000, agricultural experts from Monsanto came to the mainland in the name of learning and exchange, and after contacting their counterparts in the mainland, they put forward a proposal for exchanging soybean seeds.
Out of the principle of courtesy, the mainland gave them some wild soybean seeds. When these people returned to the United States, they desperately excavated the genetic characteristics of these soybeans and finally found disease-resistant, high-yield genes.
Monsanto used this discovery to file 64 patents in more than 100 countries, and now we have to pay high royalties to grow this soybean.
In addition to soybeans, kiwi is also a clear example. In 1904, Commonwealth missionaries took advantage of their privilege to travel around the mainland, ostensibly preaching, but in fact collecting mainland plants.
In rural Yichang, Hubei Province, a group of missionaries cut dozens of branches from wild kiwifruit trees, which they successfully brought abroad and ended up in New Zealand.
With these branches, New Zealand scientists and technicians cultivated new varieties of kiwifruit, which eventually developed into a major industry and an important export commodity for New Zealand, which was sold back to the mainland at a high price.
It's just a matter of selling at a high price to make more money, and New Zealand is also making a rake, claiming that the cultivation of kiwifruit in the mainland infringes their patents, and they are still thinking about collecting patent fees from the mainland.
A small seed contains complex genetic information, especially some inconspicuous plants that grow in the wild, and it is likely that through cultivation and improvement, the crop can be greatly improved and the yield can be improved.
Fortunately, the country has also recognized the importance of parental seeds and has established a good protection system, setting up 72 protection mats to protect wild relatives.
Parental seeds are related to a country's agricultural production and food security, and a few seeds are inconspicuous in the eyes of ordinary people, and no one pays attention to them when they are thrown on the ground, but once they fall into the hands of foreign people with good intentions, they are likely to become weapons that endanger the interests of the mainland. Strict control of the illegal flow of parent seeds out of the country requires all of us to work together.