https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/02/22/us-firm-thermo-fisher-stop-selling-equipment-china-uighur-minority-dna-database/
Article below:
US firm Thermo Fisher to stop selling equipment to China for Uighur minority DNA
database
22 February 2019
US biotechnology manufacturer Thermo Fisher on Thursday announced it would stop
selling to China equipment used to create a DNA database of the country’s Uighur
minority.
Since 2016, there have been regular reports of Chinese authorities taking blood
samples in the Xinjiang region.
Xinjiang is home to most of China’s Uighur ethnic minority and has been under
heavy police surveillance in recent years after violent inter-ethnic tensions.
Nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic language-speaking minorities in
China have reportedly been held in re-education camps, according to a UN panel
of experts.
According to The New York Times, Chinese officials presented the blood tests as
part of a free health check-up program. Some 36 million people have
participated, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua — more than just the
Uighur population.
In spring 2017, Human Rights Watch claimed China had ordered equipment to
increase DNA sequencing capabilities — which American scientific journal Nature
then confirmed, naming Thermo Fisher as a supplier.
On Thursday, following a report in The New York Times which noted the “help of
American expertise” in China’s campaign of surveillance, said it would no longer
sell its equipment in Xinjiang.
“As the world leader in serving science, we recognize the importance of
considering how our products and services are used – or may be used – by our
customers,” a company spokesperson said to AFP.
Despite its low public profile, Thermo Fisher is a scientific equipment giant,
with US$24.3 billion in revenue last year.