Atlanta/Hong Kong
CNN
—
The United States on Thursday added two subsidiaries of Chinese genetics corporate BGI to a industry blacklist over allegations it performed genetic research and surveillance actions for Beijing, which Washington says was once used to repress ethnic minorities in China.
The US Department of Commerce, which oversees export controls, stated in a commentary that BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions (Hongkong) “present a significant risk of diversion to China’s military programs.”
“The addition of these entities is based upon information that indicates their collection and analysis of genetic data poses a significant risk of contributing to monitoring and surveillance by the government of China, which has been utilized in the repression of ethnic minorities in China,” the commentary stated.
CNN has reached out to BGI Group, which is among the international’s biggest genomics firms and a indexed company based totally in Shenzhen, for touch upon its subsidiaries.
In 2020, the USA Department of Commerce added two different BGI associates, Xinjiang Silk Road BGI and Beijing Liuhe BGI, to the industry blacklist over their alleged involvement in human proper abuses in opposition to Uyghur and different basically Muslim minorities in China’s some distance western area of Xinjiang.
BGI Group issued a commentary on the time denying the allegations, announcing it “does not engage in unethical practices and does not provide gene technology for the surveillance of Uighurs.”
Rights teams have documented human rights abuses in Xinjiang for the reason that 2000s, together with pressured hard work and coercive enforcement of circle of relatives making plans and beginning keep watch over insurance policies on Uyghur minorities, in line with a damning United Nations record final 12 months. China has ceaselessly driven again in opposition to those reviews with company denials.
The newest checklist compiled by means of the USA Department of Commerce features a general of 28 Chinese entities, 4 from Pakistan, 3 from Myanmar and one each and every from Belarus, Russia and Taiwan.
Being positioned at the checklist manner the entities are limited from purchasing American generation and different items.