Safeguarding Biocultural Diversity on the Path to Sustainability: The Legal Regulation of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources in China

Safeguarding biocultural diversity is foundational to global sustainability. The development of digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI) brings both opportunities and challenges, with bioculturally sensitive DSI derived from genetic resources associated with traditional knowledge as a key focus. As a country rich in both biodiversity and cultural diversity and a major global DSI contributor and user, China has established an initial governance foundation for DSI, leaving room to align DSI governance with biocultural diversity goals. Existing studies frame a binary debate over the biological and data attributes of DSI, overlook its algorithmic attribute, and lack research on a Chinese regulatory pathway oriented toward biocultural diversity; research on DSI derived from traditional knowledge and on domestic Cali Fund docking (institutional alignment) remains limited. Combining doctrinal legal and socio-legal analysis, this article examines over 30 legal and normative instruments governing DSI in China and identifies a four-layer dilemma, namely conceptual ambiguity, institutional fragmentation, operational risks, and mechanism misalignment, that poses risks of digital biopiracy and of the erosion of fair and equitable biocultural benefit-sharing. Grounded in the Differentiated Integration Theory, it proposes a tiered regulatory framework underpinned by a hard–soft law continuum and a domestic docking path, offering a reference for implementing Goal C and Target 13 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.