From November 7 to 9, 2018, an International Symposium themed: "Powerful actor, high impact bio-threats" was held in Sussex, England at Wilton Park, an executive agency of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The main objective of the symposium is conducting a “1.5 track dialogue” between officials in charge of bio-safety, policy researchers, and technical experts from international think tanks on bio-safety, which has generated lots of new ideas for reducing the potential risks posed by high impact biological hazards, as well as reaching consensus on international bio-safety risk prevention and control.

Government officials and think tank experts from many countries participated in the symposium. They expressed their deep concern about the high impact of bio-threats. Professor Zhang Weiwen, the director of the TJU Center for Biosafety Research and Strategy, participated in the symposium as the only Chinese representative. He believes that agriculture is closely connected to human security, social security and economic security, and bio-safety problems are most likely to be caused by agricultural threats. However, the current assessment and control system for agricultural bio-threats is still inadequate, and with continuous breakthroughs in technological innovation and integration, abuse and misuse of biotechnology still exits, so experts from various fields need to focus more attention on this topic. The symposium promoted international exchanges on bio-safety and laid the foundation for the future advancement of international bio-safety risk management and control.

More than 60 events are hosted by Wilton Park each year in the UK and overseas, bringing together representatives of multiple fields. In 1946, the meeting on how to restore post-war democracy between Britain and Germany was held at this venue. Since 1991, Wilton Park has been a non-profit executive organization subordinate to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a world-leading discussion center aiming to address global challenges.