AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to January 2025. Expanded details on these recently approved traits, as well as for approvals dating back as far as 1992, can be found on AgbioInvestor’s GM Monitor website.

Hangzhou Ruifeng Biotechnology’s herbicide tolerant soybean XP-2 has received cultivation approval in China. The soybean contains CP4 epsps, which confers glyphosate tolerance and CdP450, which confers flazasulfuron tolerance. The two genetic events were inserted through agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of soybean.

In China GM traits are typically developed by a select group of companies that have developed traits domestically that differ from those used in the rest of the world but still utilise the same core genes. Chinese developed traits are licensed to Chinese seed companies for combination with their own varietal germplasm for commercialisation.

The CP4 epsps gene is commonly used to confer glyphosate tolerance to a wide range of crops, including cotton (Event MON 1445, MON 1698 and MON 88913), soybean (Event GTS 40-3-2 and MON 89788), maize (Event MON 805, MON 87427, NK603 and nCX-1), wheat (Event MON 71800), canola (Event MON 88302), alfalfa (Event J101 and J163), sugarbeat (Event H7-1), and even creeping bentgrass (Event ASR368). With China developing its own novel sources for the gene in cotton (Event KJC017), maize (Event nCX-1) and two for soybean (Event XP-2 and WYN341GmC).

The CdP450 gene, produced by the Chinese company Hangzhou Ruifeng Biotechnology, confers tolerance to flazasulfuron, a sulfonylurea herbicide typically used for controlling the unwanted growth of grass, broad-leaved weeds and sedges. It is an active ingredient distinct from glyphosate that was first approved for cultivation use in China on maize in 2024, with the most recent cultivation approval adding it for use in soybean. Currently the CdP450 gene is most commonly used as a selection marker when developing genetic traits, with the three registrations by Hangzhou Ruifeng Biotechnology being the only instance of this gene being approved for cultivation.

Currently only the only GM crop commercially grown in China is GM cotton, as the country has not yet commercially launched GM maize and soybean varieties. China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs began the cultivation approval of GM maize traits in 2019 and GM soybean traits in 2020, with only domestically developed traits for maize and soybean have been approved. Open commercial cultivation will not occur until GM crop varieties have completed the country’s regulatory process which is likely to be 2025 and beyond.