​Zhang Xiao: Developing science and technology ethics: from principle to action

 (Author: Zhang Xiao, the deputy director of the Research Center of Ethics and Moral Construction of Renmin University of China.) 

Recently, the Plan for the Establishment of the National Ethics Committee for Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) was adopted in the ninth conference of commission for deepening overall reform of the CPC Central committee. At the conference, it was pointed out that science and technology ethics is the value principle that must be obeyed in science and technology activities. The purpose of setting up the National Ethics Committee for Science and Technology is to strengthen the overall standardization, guidance and coordination, and to promote the construction of a comprehensive, oriented, standardized, orderly and coordinated ethical governance system for science and technology. We should promptly improve institutions and norms, improve governance mechanisms, strengthen ethical oversight, refine relevant laws and regulations and ethical review rules, and standardize all kinds of scientific research activities. According to the conference, the development of science and technology ethics should not only clarify the values that must be observed in science and technology activities, but also put these principles into practice and build an effective "science and technology ethics governance system" through various systems, mechanisms, supervision and review.