China uses DNA tech to spy on people. Yale geneticist and a U.S. biotech helped.

“The Chinese authorities turned to a Massachusetts company and a prominent Yale researcher as they built an enormous system of surveillance and control.”
This is a heck of a story about how genetic surveillance, powered by American know-how, is being used to oppress the Muslim minority Uighur population and others in China, from the New York Times.
The Uighur people of China are mostly Muslim, and China does awful things to make them comply with state rule. More than a million people, many Uighur, have been detained in what Xi Jinping's administration calls “re-education” camps. Now, DNA technology has become a useful weapon.

China used Thermo Fisher’s equipment to map the genes of its people, according to five Ministry of Public Security patent filings. Authorities in Xinjiang said that Thermo Fisher's machines are important for DNA inspections in criminal cases and have “no substitutes in China.”
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Thermo Fisher is the Massachussetts-based firm highlighted in this report. They're on Twitter.
And Yale geneticist Kenneth Kidd is the American whose expertise was so central to the plan.
Excerpt from Sui-Lee Wee's NYT report:
Collecting genetic material is a key part of China’s campaign, according to human rights groups and Uighur activists. They say a comprehensive DNA database could be used to chase down any Uighurs who resist conforming to the campaign.
Police forces in the United States and elsewhere use genetic material from family members to find suspects and solve crimes. Chinese officials, who are building a broad nationwide database of DNA samples, have cited the crime-fighting benefits of China’s own genetic studies.
To bolster their DNA capabilities, scientists affiliated with China’s police used equipment made by Thermo Fisher, a Massachusetts company. For comparison with Uighur DNA, they also relied on genetic material from people around the world that was provided by Kenneth Kidd, a prominent Yale University geneticist.
On Wednesday, Thermo Fisher said it would no longer sell its equipment in Xinjiang, the part of China where the campaign to track Uighurs is mostly taking place. The company said separately in an earlier statement to The New York Times that it was working with American officials to figure out how its technology was being used.
Dr. Kidd said he had been unaware of how his material and know-how were being used. He said he believed Chinese scientists were acting within scientific norms that require informed consent by DNA donors.
China’s campaign poses a direct challenge to the scientific community and the way it makes cutting-edge knowledge publicly available. The campaign relies in part on public DNA databases and commercial technology, much of it made or managed in the United States. In turn, Chinese scientists have contributed Uighur DNA samples to a global database, potentially violating scientific norms of consent.
READ MORE: China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise [image: shutterstock]
Tweets from the reporter with background about how this investigative feature was reported.

Sometime last year, @CRTejada had asked a couple of us to look into U.S. companies doing business in Xinjiang. Was there anyone we shld be looking at in particular?
I said yes! Thermo Fisher, a U.S. maker of DNA sequencers that was selling their equipment to the police.
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

I had told @wang_maya I would look into Thermo Fisher's role in Xinjiang but only got around to it late last year. The only problem was: I felt I didn't have enough to take the story forward. @hrw had done a fantastic job documenting the company's interests in the region and...
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

the @WSJ had also blazed a trail with their reporting on China taking DNA samples from innocent and guilty people. Read this piece by @natashakhanhk @xinwenfan @Liz_in_Shanghaihttps://t.co/sCjFgf69Ed
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

But thanks to Maya's sources, I heard that scientists affiliated with China’s police had teamed up with prominent American geneticists to better understand how to differentiate between ethnicities. They collected DNA samples from Uighurs, Tibetans and the Han...
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

And sought help from Kenneth Kidd, a prominent geneticist from Yale. They invited him to China and one of them asked to spend 11 months at his lab. That person was the chief forensic physician from the ministry of public security’s Institute of Forensic Science...
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Who then took DNA samples from Dr. Kidd's lab in Yale back to China. The Chinese researchers started filing patents on DNA methodology using Kidd's samples WITHOUT TELLING HIM.
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

When I contacted Kidd, he said he had no idea that the patents were filed using his lab's DNA samples. But the cooperation also went the other way. Chinese govt researchers contributed the data of 2,143 Uighurs to a database run by Dr. Kidd that was partially funded by the DOJ.
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

When I contacted Kidd, he said he had no idea that the patents were filed using his lab's DNA samples. But the cooperation also went the other way. Chinese govt researchers contributed the data of 2,143 Uighurs to a database run by Dr. Kidd that was partially funded by the DOJ.
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

I never say holy cow, but this was my holy cow moment. I remember calling @CRTejada being all breathless. He's dealt a lot with my "you can't believe this!" moments...
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU, said this sharing of data could violate scientific norms of informed consent because it is not clear whether the Uighurs volunteered their DNA samples to the Chinese authorities. “No one should be in a database without express consent.”
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Back to Thermo Fisher. I see now that it's the nexus between these American geneticists and the Chinese police. In 2015, the company co-sponsored a conference that brought all of these people together.
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

China used Thermo Fisher’s equipment to map the genes of its people, according to five Ministry of Public Security patent filings. Authorities in Xinjiang said that Thermo Fisher's machines are important for DNA inspections in criminal cases and have “no substitutes in China.”
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

In an earlier statement to me, Thermo Fisher said that it was working with American officials to figure out how its technology was being used in Xinjiang. Then I wake up to news on Wednesday that the company said it would stop selling its equipment in Xinjiang...
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

It is widely believed that the Chinese police cross-sell equipment across provincial and regional lines, so it remains to be seen whether this announcement by Thermo Fisher makes any difference.
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Will let @SophieHRW explain in her own words:
“It’s an important step, and one hopes that they apply the language in their own statement to commercial activity across China, and that other companies are assessing their sales and operations, especially in Xinjiang,”
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Underpinning all of this, of course, is the Uighurs who had to give their DNA samples to the state. @dtbylertold me he spoke to 5 Uighurs and dozens of others whose relatives had to do so. “There was a pretty strong coercive element to it."
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Thank you to @Uighurian and Tahir Hamut and others who didn't dared to be named for sharing their stories. Those scenes of Uighurs standing in line to have their blood taken, fingerprints and faces scanned, voices recorded -- I will never forget. END
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019