MP urges UK government to block genomic data harvesting companies from UK
A British MP has urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to consider banning companies involved in harvesting genomic data from the United Kingdom, noting that a Chinese company is doing just that in Britain.
Commending Sunak for leading discussions at the recent G7 Summit in Japan on countering national security threats coming from China, Conservative Party MP Henry Smith noted that the dangers from Beijing could be lurking closer to home.
He asked Sunak whether he would ‘consider blocking companies such as BGI that are harvesting genomic data – as they have done in the United States and in academia in Canada – from activities in this country?’
According to a Reuters report in 2021, BGI has been selling prenatal tests around the world that were developed in collaboration with China’s military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations.
American intelligence officials have said that Chinese firms are collecting genetic data internationally as part of an effort by the Chinese government and companies to develop the world’s largest bio-database.
In an October 2021 report, the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center noted: ‘The powerful technologies harnessed by the bioeconomy also can lead to national security and economic vulnerabilities. For example, biotechnology can be misused to create virulent pathogens that can target our food supply or even the human population. Genomic technology used to design disease therapies tailored to an individual also can be used to identify genetic vulnerabilities in a population. Large genetic databases that allow people’s ancestry to be revealed and crimes to be solved also can be misused for surveillance and societal repression.’
BGI Group, formerly Beijing Genomics Institute, bills itself as ‘the world’s largest genome research organisation,’ and has offices in the United States and United Kingdom.
In 2020, the US Commerce Department added two units of BGI Group to its economic blacklist over allegations it conducted genetic analyses used to further the repression of China’s minority Uyghurs. Beijing and BGI both denied allegations of wrongdoing at the time.
