UHRP Welcomes New Sanctions on Chinese DNA Company BGI for Targeting Uyghurs
March 7, 2023 | 8:00 a.m. EST
For Immediate Release
Contact: Omer Kanat +1 (202) 819-0598, Peter Irwin +1 (646) 906-7722
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) welcomes the addition of three inter-linked Chinese companies—BGI Research, BGI Tech Solutions, and Forensic Genomics International—to a US trade blacklist for their role facilitating human rights abuses against Uyghurs.
“Some of China’s most profitable tech companies continue to play a devastating role in the Uyghur crisis,” said Omer Kanat, UHRP Executive Director. “The international community needs to recognize the role that private industry has played in repression in the Uyghur homeland.”
The Department of Commerce added the Chinese genetics companies to its “Entity List” this week, stating that “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.”
Two other BGI affiliates, Xinjiang Silk Road BGI and Beijing Liuhe BGI were added in 2020 for their involvement in the same abuses.
Find a complete list of US government sanctions related to human rights abuses faced by Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples on UHRP’s website here.
Read more:
UHRP Applauds New Bill on Magnitsky Sanctions for Chinese Tech Companies Enabling Genocide: Hikvision, Dahua, Tiandy and BGI, December 19, 2022
UHRP Testimony: Ending “Business as Usual” to Combat the Genocide of the Uyghurs: UHRP Testimony Before USCIRF, December 14, 2022
UHRP Welcomes Secondary Sanctions Bill for Those Doing Business with Genocide Perpetrators, August 3, 2022
UHRP Joins Allies Urging US Government to Immediately Impose Magnitsky Sanctions on CCP Officials Implicated by Xinjiang Police Files, August 10, 2022
UHRP Applauds Continued Action by Executive Branch on Uyghur Human Rights Crisis, May 27, 2020
Uyghur Human Rights Project applauds U.S. sanctions against Chinese entities and officials complicit in human rights violations, October 8, 2019