June 17, 2020 ~ China’s Communist government is collecting blood samples from 700 million men and boys to augment its massive surveillance operation targeting the country’s own citizens, a new report said Wednesday.
Police have fanned out across the country since late 2017 to collect enough samples to build a huge DNA database, according to a study out Wednesday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the New York Times reported.
The database would enable authorities from the hardline Chinese Communist Party to track down any man’s male relatives using only that man’s blood, saliva or other genetic material, the paper reported.
And an American company, Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher, is lending a hand, selling testing kits to the Chinese police that specifically meet their demands.
US lawmakers have criticized Thermo Fisher for selling equipment to the Chinese authorities, but the company defended its deal.
The company said in a statement to the Times that its DNA kits “are the global standard for forensic DNA testing” and that it recognized “the importance of considering how our products and services are used — or may be used — by our customers.”
The US company sells DNA kits to law enforcement agencies in other countries as well.
But the project is viewed as a major escalation of China’s efforts to use DNA tracking to control its people.
The government had already been tracking ethnic minorities such as the Muslim Uighurs and other groups perceived as hostile or a threat to the party, according to the study.
It would also enhance the country’s already sophisticated surveillance operation, which includes high-tech cameras, facial recognition and artificial intelligence to clamp down on anti-government activity by groups or individuals.
The police say they need the database to catch criminals and that donors consent to handing over their DNA — a questionable claim in a country where even peaceful dissent is not tolerated.
Human rights groups within and outside China decried the beefed-up surveillance.
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China is collecting the world’s DNA and the reason is sinister: Gordon Chang
Published December 4, 2020 ~ The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has been collecting people’s DNA for years, and according to Gordon Chang, author of ‘The Coming Collapse of China,’ the country’s sinister motivations should be of great concern to the United States.
With over 80 million health profiles, China has the largest DNA database in the world, and growing. In an interview with Fox News, Chang warned that China plans to use this information to create bioweapons designed to target specific ethnic groups.
“The coronavirus is not the last pathogen that will be generated from Chinese soil. And so we’ve got to be concerned that the next disease is more transmissible and more deadly than the novel coronavirus,” said Chang.
China reportedly collects the DNA of its own citizens for purposes of law enforcement, tracking down dissidents, and forming a tightly controlled surveillance state.
They have also found ways to obtain the DNA of foreigners, including Americans.
How exactly do they get this sensitive information?
“Buying American companies which have DNA profiles, subsidizing DNA analysis for ancestry companies, and hacking,” said Chang.
For example, in 2015 it was discovered that the PRC hacked Anthem, the second-largest insurance company in the U.S. Now the PRC is using the coronavirus to enlarge its DNA database by requiring internationally accepted QR codes for travel in and out of the country and using vaccine diplomacy.
“What they’re doing is they are saying: ‘We’ll get this vaccine to you but we need to complete our trials so we’re going to use your population as the test. If you don’t participate in these trials, you’re not getting the Chinese vaccines,’” said Chang.
He continued, “Beijing is trying to extend its influence by making its vaccine available.” While, at the same time, “collecting very sensitive information about people outside China.”
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