Dr He chose a bad time to skirt scientific ethics, regardless if there was any direct harm to the people, as China recently announced measures to punish scientific misconduct [1].
They will likely make an example of him since he's such a public figure now. Whether they can really change the culture there is to be seen, but one thing China knows how to do is add layers of administration to select areas.
Ever since CRISPR was announced people have always been scared of what "rouge" actors could be do, now that this technology it's so 'democratized'. It was probably bound to happen somewhere. So they'll be interested in clamping down hard on the early minor cases of ethical violations, in order to protect against other much more deliberately malicious future cases.
They will likely make an example of him since he's such a public figure now. Whether they can really change the culture there is to be seen, but one thing China knows how to do is add layers of administration to select areas.
Ever since CRISPR was announced people have always been scared of what "rouge" actors could be do, now that this technology it's so 'democratized'. It was probably bound to happen somewhere. So they'll be interested in clamping down hard on the early minor cases of ethical violations, in order to protect against other much more deliberately malicious future cases.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07740-z