China should stop "self-strangling" and break dependence on foreign technologies, said Wang Xiaoning, head of the life science unit of the China Association of Science and Technology (CAST), on Monday, during a press conference on the role foreign powers play in China's life science research. 

CAST led a systematic research on how much China is relying on foreign technologies and expressed deep concerns. 

"If the U.S. government blocked us from using PubMed, what research can you conduct?" he asked, to persuade China building its own information platform on life science research. PubMed is a search engine owned by the U.S. government that helps scientists find published research papers. 

"We even search for Chinese researches on foreign platforms," Wang said. 

What's more, Wang told journalists that Chinese researchers have to hand off important data to foreign organizations in order to get their achievements published, which is "a big threat to our data security." 

In addition to search engine, China is also relying on foreign companies to get laboratory animals, equipment and consumables, according to the study. Furthermore, the situation "hasn't changed much in the last three years," Wang told journalists. 

'We limited ourselves'

The CAST-led research found that China itself is at fault of the heavy dependence on foreign providers. 

During the press release, Wang blamed the situation on various aspects like China's test-oriented education system, twisted evaluation mechanism, lack of standard and conflicting policies from different government branches. 

"We saw foreign providers as an easy way to get resources. But in this way, we limited ourselves by relying on them," Wang said. 

The study called for a government-owned replacement of PubMed and a dynamic list of key technologies for China to breakthrough.