On September 11th, the Vegetable and Flower Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences held an international communication meeting on the progress of new plant variety protection systems and testing technologies. Mr. Peter Button, Deputy Secretary General of the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV), was specially invited to attend the meeting. Representatives from the Science and Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Genome Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shanxi Agricultural University, and breeding and seed industry service enterprises in Beijing attended the meeting. Zhai Yanning, Deputy Director of the Vegetable and Flower Institute, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Yang Kun, Leader of the Plant New Variety Testing Research Group and Deputy Director of the Plant New Variety Testing (Beijing) Sub-center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, presided over the meeting.

Representatives attending the meeting visited vegetable variety resistance testing greenhouses, pathogen species preservation libraries, quality testing laboratories, molecular high-throughput testing laboratories, and the work area of the Plant New Variety Testing (Beijing) sub-center. They watched resistance identification, unmanned vehicle photography, image analysis, data analysis, and molecular testing demonstrations, and discussed the application of DNA molecular markers in DUS testing, as well as the criteria for determining substantive derived varieties, and deeply  explored the UPOV online variety rights application system and other related content.

Li Lei, Director of the Scientific Research Department of the Vegetable and Flower Institute, introduced the institute's historical evolution, research fields, research achievements, talent team, and platform construction. Deputy Director Yang Kun comprehensively introduced the history, research achievements, and future plans of the Plant New Variety Testing (Beijing) sub-center.

Zhai Yanning, deputy director of the Institute, stated that the research institute will take this event as an opportunity to further strengthen communication and dialogue with UPOV headquarters, so as to make Chinese new variety protection work more vocal internationally.

Mr. Peter Button fully acknowledges the series of important achievements made by the Plant New Variety Testing (Beijing) sub-center in molecular identification and phenotypic intelligent identification of vegetable varieties in recent years. He suggests that the Chinese self-developed DUS testing data analysis system software for plant varieties could be submitted to UPOV for sharing with various countries as soon as possible.