A group of legislators from 15 legislatures globally have called on their respective governments to investigate and suspend commercial activities with companies providing the PRC government with technologies to carry out biometric surveillance in the Uyghur Region, Tibet and elsewhere in the PRC, including the PRC state backed BGI Group and US firm Thermo Fisher.
Reports by Human Rights Watch and other groups have indicated that, since June 2016, the PRC authorities have conducted a mass DNA collection programme in the Tibet Autonomous Region, reaching up to one third of Tibet’s total population – including many children. Investigations have revealed that at least one American company, Thermo Fisher, is known to be supplying DNA profiling kits to police in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Signatories to the letter, belonging to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, include Anna Fotyga MEP, Australian Senator Claire Chandler, Canadian MP Arif Virani, Irish Senator Michael McDowell, MP Simon O’Connor from New Zealand and MP Lord James Bethell from the United Kingdom. The legislators demand their governments act to further investigate the matter and suspend commercial activities with the BGI Group and Thermo Fisher. A full copy of the letter and list of signatories is attached.
Following these revelations, IPAC EU Member Engin Eroglu MEP said:
“Beijing’s mass DNA harvesting constitutes an unacceptable interference of the right to privacy and human rights. I call on national and European authorities to take immediate action to investigate and suspend any activities with companies linked to DNA harvesting in PRC”.
FULL TEXT OF LETTER BELOW
To
Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia Ms Hadja Lahbib, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belgium
Hon. Mélanie Joly, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada
Mr Jan Lipavský, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell
Ms Catherine Colonna, Minister for European and Foreign Affairs of France Mr Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland
Mr Gabrielius Landsbergis, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Hon. Nanaia Mahuta, Minister for Foreign Affairs of New Zealand
Mr Bujar Osmani, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia Mr Bogdan Aurescu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Romania
Mr Tobias Billström, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden
Mr Ignazio Cassis, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Switzerland
Mr Dmytro Kuleba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Rt Hon James Cleverly, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom
RE: Mass DNA collection in Tibet and elsewhere in the People’s Republic of China December, 2022
Dear Ministers,
We, members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), write to express our deep concern at the use of mass DNA collection by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to enhance its surveillance on minorities, especially in the Tibetan and Uyghur regions.
Reports by Human Rights Watch and other groups have indicated that, since June 2016, the PRC authorities have conducted a mass DNA collection programme in the Tibet Autonomous Region, reaching up to one third of Tibet’s total population – including many children. Under the false pretense of criminal investigations, DNA collection takes place without individual consent and regardless of whether individuals are in any way linked to a criminal investigation.1
At least one American company, Thermo Fisher, is known to be supplying DNA profiling kits to police in the Tibet Autonomous Region.The company reportedly holds deals worth $160,0000 USD to supply the police in the region, while PRC government procurement documents reveal Tibetan police authorities buying $173,000 of Thermo Fisher’s equipment in 2021.2
These revelations follow already established concerns about systemic mass DNA collection by the PRC government in the Uyghur Region. In 2020, the US Department of Commerce added to its list of sanctioned PRC entities two entities from PRC-state funded gene firm BGI Group for abetting surveillance and repression of ethnic and religious minority groups in the Uyghur Region.3
Mass DNA collection campaign in Tibet, but also in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and in the PRC in general, constitutes a gross interference of the right to privacy and human rights and represents a form of social control directed against Tibet’s people, who are already subject to intense state surveillance and repression. We therefore call upon your administration to:
● take immediate action to investigate and suspend commercial activities with companies providing the PRC government with technologies to carry out biometric surveillance in the Uyghur Region, Tibet and elsewhere in the PRC, including the BGI Group and Thermo Fisher.
● investigate any potential connections between genomics firms operating in (insert country) and the mass DNA collection campaign led by the PRC authorities.
Yours sincerely,
1 https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/05/china-new-evidence-mass-dna-collection-tibet2 https://theintercept.com/2022/09/13/china-tibet-police-dna-thermo-fisher/
3
https://2017-2021.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2020/07/commerce-department-adds-eleven-chine se-entities-implicated-human.html
Fatmir Mediu MP, Albania
Senator Claire Chandler, Australia
Senator Janet Rice, Australia
Samuel Cogolati MP, Belgium
Georges Dallemagne MP, Belgium
Arif Virani MP, Canada
Ondřej Benešík MP, Czech Republic
Eva Decroix MP, Czech Republic
Senator André Gattolin, France
Engin Eroglu MEP, EU
Anna Fotyga MEP, EU
Malcolm Byrne MP, Ireland
Mary Seery Kearney MP, Ireland
Senator Michael McDowell, Ireland
Senator David Norris, Ireland
Žygimantas Pavilionis MP, Lithuania
Dovilė Šakalienė MP, Lithuania
Simon O’Connor MP, New Zealand
Antonio Miloshoski MP, Republic of North Macedonia
Cătălin Teniță MP, Romania
Niels Paarup-Petersen MP, Sweden
Fabian Molina MP, Switzerland
Nicolas Walder MP, Switzerland
Oleksandr Merezhko MP, Ukraine
Lord David Alton MP, United Kingdom
Lord James Bethell MP, United Kingdom
Judith Cummins MP, United Kingdom
Timothy Loughton MP, United Kingdom
Siobhain McDonagh MP, United Kingdom
Marie Rimmer MP, United Kingdom
MEMBERS OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY ALLIANCE ON CHINA
