When genomics meets geopolitics

International genomic collaboration is being reorganised under growing pressure from data sovereignty, geopolitical scrutiny, and demands for fairer benefit-sharing. This Comment uses BGI Group, formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute, as a geopolitically salient case to examine how genomic collaboration is being renegotiated around data residency, local sequencing capacity, and jurisdictional control. It does not treat BGI as a representative case, nor does it argue that genomic science has moved from openness to national closure. Rather, BGI helps make visible a broader governance challenge: how to sustain international collaboration when sensitive genomic data is increasingly tied to national laws, regional infrastructures, and expectations of local benefit. This comment argues for sovereignty-compatible interoperability: governance arrangements that allow genomic data to remain under legitimate jurisdictional control while preserving shared standards, reciprocal access, benefit-sharing, and accountable cross-border cooperation. The policy challenge is therefore not to restore an imagined model of frictionless openness, but to build trust infrastructures that combine local legitimacy with international scientific connectivity.