The Biophysical Society of China (BSC), as a constituent society of the China Association for Science and Technology, is an academic social group organized by Chinese biophysicists of their own will. It aims to advance the development of the biophysics discipline by organizing academic exchange activities, popular science education and publications, as well as to contribute to China's economic growth and to improve science literacy among the general public.

The BSC was founded in November 1979 with approval of the Presidium of China Association for Science and Technology, with the well-known biologist Shitsan Pai serving as its first president and the honorary president for the second-eigth council. The current president is Xu Tao, academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, or CAS, while Liang Dongcai and Rao Zihe, both academicians at the CAS, are honorary presidents. The BSC currently has more than 10,000 members, holding a national biophysical academic conference annually and a general meeting of the council every four years.

The BSC has five academic committees, 23 academic subgroups and 12 working committees. Refer to the branches of the BSC.http://subsites.chinadaily.com.cn/bsc/2020-03/11/c_461548.htm

It sponsors three academic journals -- Biophysics Reports (current editor: Xu Tao) co-sponsored by the Institute of Biophysics of the CAS, Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics (current editor: Wang Dacheng), and the English-language journal Protein & Cell (Editor: Rao Zihe) co-sponsored by the Higher Education Press and the Beijing Institute of Life Sciences of the CAS.

In 2009, the BSC established the Shitsan Pai Award, the highest biophysics honor in China, to honor scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the biophysics sector, as well as an award for excellent young biophysicists. The awards are given every two years.

In July 1984, the BSC officially joined the International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics, also known as IUPAB and successfully hosted the 17th International Biophysical Congress in Beijing in 2011, with around 2,000 people attending. Being chairman of the congress, BSC president Rao Zihe was elected chairman of the IUPAB (2014-2017). In 2015, the BSC hosted the 9th Asian Biophysics Association (ABA) Symposium in Hangzhou, when BSC vice president Yan Xiyun was elected ABA president. In October 2015, with the advocacy and support of the China Association for Science and Technology, the BSC and 17 other societies in the life sciences field jointly established the China Union of Life Science Societies, with BSC president Rao Zihe serving as the first rotating chairman.