Governing at speed? China’s hard question in need of soft solutions

China is one of the world’s most exciting sites of biomedical innovation, not only because it has emerged as a global scientific powerhouse—ranking first in biological sciences and second in health sciences1—but also because its regulators have been willing to experiment with new regulatory pathways, creating space for early-stage clinical exploration and responses to unmet medical needs.2 Yet, China may also be particularly vulnerable to poorly governed scientific experimentation undermining public confidence and triggering backlash, both domestically and globally.