Legislators call for sanctions on firms complicit in mass DNA harvesting of Tibetans and Uyghurs

December 12, 2022
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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.

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.

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,

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

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