Dharamshala, India –Legislators from 15 countries, including the UK, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have called on their respective governments to investigate and suspend business activities with companies supplying the PRC government with biometric surveillance technology in the East Turkistan and Tibet.
Legislators from 15 countries and members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) wrote to the Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Canada, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand, Belgium, the European Union, Ireland, Romania Lithuania and Northern Macedonia on December 16, 2022, and urged their governments 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. And investigate any potential connections between genomics firms operating in (insert country) and the mass DNA collection campaign led by the PRC authorities.
“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,” the letter of legislators to their governments stated.
“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,” the letter mentioned.
“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,” their letter said.
“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,” the legislators said.
“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.
“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,” said Engin Eroglu, the Member of the European Parliament.
