On the news of Lulu and Nana having been born, the Peoples Daily announced the experimental result as "a historical breakthrough in the application of gene editing technology for disease prevention." But scientists at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing immediately developed serious concerns. Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, who moderated the session on 28 November, recalled that He Jiankui did not mention human embryos in the draft summary of the presentation. He received an urgent message on 25 November through Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, a pioneer of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, to whom he had confided the news earlier that morning. As the news already broke out before the day of the presentation, he had to be brought in by the University of Hong Kong security from his hotel. Nobel laureate David Baltimore, the chair of the organizing committee of the summit, was the first to react after Hes speech, and declared his horror and dismay at his work.
He did not disclose the parents names (other than their pseudonyms Mark and Grace) and they did not make themselves available to be interviewed, so their reaction to this experiment and the ensuing controversy is not known. There was widespread criticism in the media and scientific community over the conduct of the clinical project and its secrecy, and concerns raised for the long term well-being of Lulu and Nana. Bioethicist Henry T. Greely of Stanford Law School declared, "I unequivocally condemn the experiment," and later, "He Jiankui’s experiment was, amazingly, even worse than I first thought." Kiran Musunuru, one of the experts called on to review Hes manuscript and who later wrote a book on the scandal, called it a "historic ethical fiasco, a deeply flawed experiment".
On the night of 26 November 122 Chinese scientists issued a statement criticizing his research. They declared that the experiment was unethical, "crazy" and "a huge blow to the global reputation and development of Chinese science". The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences made a condemnation statement on 5 January 2019 saying that:
A series of investigations was opened by Hes university, local authorities, and the Chinese government. On 26 November 2018, SUSTech released a public notification on its website condemning Hes conduct, mentioning the key points as:
* The research work was conducted off-campus by Associate Professor He Jiankui without reporting to the university and the Department of Biology, and the university and the Department of Biology were unaware of it.
* The Academic Committee of the Department of Biology considers that Associate Professor He Jiankui's use of gene editing technology for human embryo research is a serious violation of academic ethics and academic standards.
* SUSTech strictly requires scientific research to comply with national laws and regulations and to respect and abide by international academic ethics and academic norms. The university will immediately hire authoritative experts to set up an independent committee to conduct an in-depth investigation, and will publish relevant information after the investigation.
On 28 November 2018, the organising committee of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, led by Baltimore, issued a statement, declaring:On 29 January 2019, it was learned that a U.S. Nobel laureate Craig Mello interviewed He about his experiment with gene-edited babies. In February 2019, He's claims were reported to have been confirmed by Chinese investigators, according to NPR News. Around that time, news reported that the Chinese government may have helped fund the CRISPR babies experiment, at least in part, based on newly uncovered documents.