Scientist Defends Tibet Expedition

Campaigners against the Chinese occupation of Tibet have criticised a British microbiologist and his team over plans to prospect for patentable micro-organisms in the region, in cooperation with the Chinese authorities.

Bill Grant of Leicester University defended his project yesterday, saying the political issues were no concern of scientists. His team includes scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Seville and the Netherlands branch of the US genomics company Genencor, and is largely funded by the European commission and the University of Western Cape, in South Africa.

The expeditions to Tibet and inner Mongolia, to begin in spring, are to seek micro-organisms living in extreme heat, cold or salty conditions which might contain natural enzymes which could be patented for use in industrial processes. It is the first microbial biotechnology deal to be signed between the EC and China. In 1992 Dr Grant found an enzyme in Kenya which Genencor exploited for stonewashing jeans.

"I don't see that we are in the business of making this kind of political judgment when the EC has made the appropriate agreements with the Chinese, and the Chinese are perfectly happy," he said.

The London-based Free Tibet Campaign estimates that 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed since the Chinese invasion in 1950.

The government of Tibet in exile, which represents the Dalai Lama, appeals for individuals and agencies working in Tibet to avoid "transfer of ownership of Tibetan land and natural resources to non-Tibetans".