In the era of big data, scientific big data have become the new driving force for both science and technology innovation and social and economic development. China is a powerhouse in generating vast quantities of biological data, which are an essential strategic resource for population health and national security. The current situation of data loss due to the isolated data storage and the lack of systematic data monitoring and management, and the heavy dependency on international biological data centers urgently calls for China's own life big data storage and management system at the national level. Taking NCBI as an example, this article introduces the development history and present situation of the international biological big data centers. In addition, the importance, urgency, current historical opportunity and prospect of establishing a national biological big data center in China are also expounded in detail. In order to promote the development of the national center and improve China's international competitiveness and influence in life science research, the BIG Data Center at Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences, has taken many efforts on big data deposition, integration and translation and achieved initial progress.