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China The Military

Prenatal Test Developed With Chinese Military Harvests Gene Data From Millions of Women (reuters.com) 122

Posted by BeauHD from the data-is-power dept.
A prenatal test taken by millions of pregnant women globally was developed by Chinese gene company BGI Group in collaboration with the Chinese military and is being used by the firm to collect genetic data, a Reuters review of publicly available documents found. From the report: The report is the first to reveal that the company collaborated with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to develop and improve the test, taken in early pregnancy, as well as the scope of BGI's storage and analysis of the data. The United States sees BGI's efforts to collect and analyze human gene data as a national security threat. China's biggest genomics firm, BGI began marketing the test abroad in 2013. Branded NIFTY, it is among the world's top selling non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT). These screen a sample of blood from a pregnant woman to detect abnormalities such as Down's syndrome in a developing fetus. So far more than 8 million women globally have taken BGI's prenatal tests, BGI has said. NIFTY is sold in at least 52 countries, including Britain, Europe, Canada, Australia, Thailand and India, but not the United States.

BGI uses leftover blood samples sent to its laboratory in Hong Kong and genetic data from the tests for population research, the company confirmed to Reuters. Reuters found the genetic data of over 500 women who took the test, including women in Europe and Asia, is also stored in the government-funded China National GeneBank in Shenzhen, which BGI runs. Reuters found no evidence BGI violated privacy agreements or regulations; the company said it obtains signed consent and destroys overseas samples and data after five years. "At no stage throughout the testing or research process does BGI have access to any identifiable personal data," the company said. However, the test's privacy policy says data collected can be shared when it is "directly relevant to national security or national defense security" in China. BGI said it "has never been asked to provide -- nor provided -- data from its NIFTY tests to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense purposes." "Non-invasive prenatal testing kits marketed by Chinese biotech firms serve an important medical function, but they can also provide another mechanism for the People's Republic of China and Chinese biotech companies to collect genetic and genomic data from around the globe," the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center said.

China's foreign ministry said Reuters' findings reflected "groundless accusations and smears" of U.S. agencies.
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Prenatal Test Developed With Chinese Military Harvests Gene Data From Millions of Women More

Prenatal Test Developed With Chinese Military Harvests Gene Data From Millions of Women

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  • the ultimate PID (Score:4, Informative)

    by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @09:31PM (#61561253)
    If a genome is not personally identifiable data, then wtf is?

    • Re:the ultimate PID (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @10:01PM (#61561309)

      If a genome is not personally identifiable data, then wtf is?

      Absolutely. Not much different from Ancestry.com or 23 and Me from what I see.

      • Can you point to some evidence of Ancestry.com or 23 and Me having an affiliation with the military? That would seem to be a pretty significant difference if not.

        • Re:the ultimate PID (Score:4, Insightful)

          by BardBollocks ( 1231500 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @11:24PM (#61561405)

          US law enforcement is using the data that was collected, you can guarantee the intelligence agencies have access too.

          • "US law enforcement is using the data that was collected..." Prove this.
            • See the TV series "Genetic Detective".

            • Re:the ultimate PID (Score:5, Interesting)

              by Harald Paulsen ( 621759 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @01:14AM (#61561533) Homepage

              https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/... [www.cbc.ca]

              As long as one of your relatives is using one of the gene sites, don't do any heinous crimes. They will find you.

              That also mean that if you submit your DNA, you can have the pleasure of being involved in a police investigation for something a relative have done.

              I have no doubt that in the future more investigations will use the DNA bank route.

              "Okey, so we found you a partial match, so we are going to need to swab all your relatives to catch or get closer to the killer"

              In the dystopic far future, routine DNA registration will happen at birth. At first it will be offered as a way to test for genetic diseases, you know, FOR THE CHILDREN.

              • Re: the ultimate PID (Score:4, Informative)

                by Esben ( 553245 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @02:20AM (#61561593)
                Here in Denmark we have a central gene and tissue sample bank/register for medical purpose: Whenever you get taken a sample at a public hospital you are entered into the database. Of course, they promise very high security...

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by hjf ( 703092 )

                  here in Argentina we have the DNI (national identity document) which has your photo and fingerprint.
                  When you need a passport (because most people don't have one, as we don't need it to travel in south america), you just request it and they send it to your house - complete with photo, fingerprint, and biometric chip.

                • It doesn't matter how much they promise, how much they really mean what they say, or how good they are at keeping that promise. One lapse in security (irrespective of intentions) is all it takes.

              • Not so far and distant a future, I would think.

              • Imagine a society that can accelerate evolution with eugenics and weed out psychopaths or put them into positions where being a psychopath might be a benefit. If you can find a murder-rapist within days with a gene-analysis method, is it that bad?

                Sure, I get the problem that you don't want the next Hitler & Himmler Tag-Team getting their hands on technology like this, but my take is that a society that is chill about feasible eugenics and genetic crime-solving might actually be advanced enough to be the

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  It makes sense to screen for certain genetic defects, although even that is controversial e.g. is a minor cosmetic issue grounds for correction or termination of the pregnancy?

                  But super smart people, be it via eugenics or engineering or an implant, the problem is always going to be access. Unless everyone can get it you just end up creating more inequality, and literal 2nd class citizens.

                  While it's tempting to think that a few super smart people could do wonders for us or that we should revere any kind of "

                  • Prenatal screening has consequences. For instance, in Europe, prenatal screening for Down Syndrome has led to a reduction of 54% in the number of babies born with Down Syndrome (see: https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]). Presumably, these babies are terminated during pregnancy. While Down Syndrome is not cosmetic, it does have a range of severity from mild to severe, and the level of severity is often not known prenatally. I wonder, what does it mean to live a world where almost no one is born with Down Syndr

                    • "what would it to live in a world where everyone has an IQ of 150+? "

                      You'd have a lot of janitors, baristas and garbage men with IQs of 150. I'd guess they wouldn't be the happiest bunch. Maybe even more likely to overthrow the government or get a gun and shoot up a school or workplace.

                      Smart people are an overall plus for humanity, but have you ever noticed most serial killers are noted to have had very high intelligence?

                    • Presumably, these babies are terminated during pregnancy.

                      You might want to ask Kermit Gosnell about that.

                    • People with low intelligence seem more likely to get caught after the first murder all things considered. More intelligent people are generally more successful at whatever they're doing or pursuing in life. That includes immoral or illegal acts as well. However that doesn't mean intelligence predisposes people to that behavior.

                • Found the psychopath.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by mjwx ( 966435 )

                  Imagine a society that can accelerate evolution with eugenics and weed out psychopaths or put them into positions where being a psychopath might be a benefit. If you can find a murder-rapist within days with a gene-analysis method, is it that bad?

                  But it never works that way. Genetics is, effectively, random. we simply cant predict what genes lead to what traits at this point in time.

                  Also, you're assuming that antisocial disorders are genetic. These are more likely to be a result of a poor upbringing rather than a genetic disorder. If Hitler's father had of been less abusive and more supportive he might not have taken his rejection from the Vienna academy of arts so badly and we might be talking about his paintings of Austrian landscapes and life

                • If I can upgrade my brain to 150+ IQ

                  Pretty low threshold there, Sparky.

                • Imagine a society that can accelerate evolution with eugenics and weed out psychopaths or put them into positions where being a psychopath might be a benefit. If you can find a murder-rapist within days with a gene-analysis method, is it that bad?

                  That pre-supposes that psychopathy is an isolated genetic trait which can be weeded out without affecting other traits. More than likely, it's an emergent trait that arises as a side-effect of the interaction between other desirable traits. Like how sickle cell an [wikipedia.org]

              • As long as one of your relatives is using one of the gene sites, don't do any heinous crimes. They will find you. That also mean that if you submit your DNA, you can have the pleasure of being involved in a police investigation for something a relative have done.

                Yes, that is the fascinating thing. They don't need the criminal to upload their sequences, a second or third cousin will do.

                The documentary series I referenced above actually talks to some of those relatives whose DNA is used to solve cold cases. Most of them seem fine, indeed many are happy with the fact that their Ancestry result helped capture a distant relative who just happened to be a serial killer.

            • Re:the ultimate PID (Score:4, Informative)

              by I kan Spl ( 614759 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @01:18AM (#61561537)

              https://www.statnews.com/2018/... [statnews.com]

              The state got a genetic match with a murder suspect using DNA in a genealogy website.

        • Who needs the military when people willingly upload thier genome to the open internet?

      • Nice bit of whatboutism there. But I will bite.

        The difference is lying to the customer.

        The stated purpose of a prenatal test is to identify potential medical issues of an unborn child.

        The stated purpose of 23&me and ancestry.com is to build a shared database of relatives, and ancestral descent.

        Building a database of results (and other info) from the first case is unexpected by the typical user (although it may be revealed in the fine print...) Doing so in the second case is understood to be part of the

        • Fine print certainly matters. From the article "Other companies selling such prenatal tests also re-use data for research. But none operate on the scale of BGI, scientists and ethicists say, or have BGI’s links to a government or its track recordwith a national military. " and "The women, who signed consent forms stating that their genetic data would be stored and used for research, said they did not realize their genetic information could end up in China. For example, one of them, a 32-year-old offi
    • Sure. I'll give you a genetic sequence, and you tell me who (or what) it belongs too. I'll even give you half-credit if you can tell me the race or country of origin of the genetic sequence.

  • Oof. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @09:34PM (#61561257)

    They are taking this genocide of the Uyghurs further than anyone expected. I suppose they are all going in a database. I'm betting some of the CCP have rare conditions and need to find people with compatible DNA before harvesting their organs.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by nonBORG ( 5254161 )
      It is just a organ for pay system, CCP members are not excluded but anyone in the world can go and get their organs if they have the money to pay.

  • This can not be good. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shm ( 235766 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @09:36PM (#61561261)

    Given what we saw last year, expecting the CCP to demonstrate even basic ethics would be monumental stupidity.

    • Given what we saw last year, expecting the CCP to demonstrate even basic ethics would be monumental stupidity.

      And yet there's still people in the world dumb enough to tolerate and/or do business with communists.

      • China is not communist (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @01:17AM (#61561535) Journal

        In China the people are subservient to the state, which is an inversion of the communist corner stone that the state is subservient to the workers (people).

        China is far worse, it is an Autocracy, it is an authoritarian dictatorship in communist rags. The real ideology of China is now far closer to fascism than anything espoused by Marx, et. al.

        • Please supply supporting evidence

          • Xi's term limits were removed.

            • Xi can be voted out though. The term limits were introduced in 1982, probably to appease Americans. They were removed again in 2018. Not exactly evidence of a "dictatorship in communist rags". In the US term limits were introduced to prevent leftists like Roosevelt from doing too much to empower the working class.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
                Really.... you honestly think Xi can be voted out? Just like Putin... just like a number of other autocratic "democracies" around the world.

                Having no term limits on an elected position breeds corruption. Just look at Congress.
                • Ok. But Xi ended a lot of corruption that existed despite term limits and continues to fight corruption. Meanwhile in the US we literally cannot get our government to do anything even when 95% of our citizens support it, unless a billionaire and some mega-corporations want it. Term limits did nothing to stop the corruption of the last 7 presidents(Biden included), and if you skip Carter every president after JFK. We can't even free Brittany Spears from her dad even though the entire nation can see the corru

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
                    Ended corruption... hah. Careers are ended only when the news becomes national and looks bad for the national party.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by gtall ( 79522 )

            Jinping.

          • It's obvious to anyone with a minimum of knowledge that China is not communist. Neither are Russia, Cuba or North Korea.

            The fact that every attempt at creating a communist country ended in a dictatorship (and the fact that communism is a utopia, which is doomed to fail for as long as resources are limited, due to human individualism and greed) doesn't mean that the dictatorships that claim to be communist are communist.

            If you attempt to build a nuclear powered motorbike, fail halfway through and end up with

            • That every communist project has struggled to realize their ideals might have more to do with the US and other capitalist nations doing everything they can to cripple them. When you look at how the US has behaved, for example killing 20% of the Korean population, the decades long war in Vietnam, proxy wars in dozens of countries, coups in Iran(the list goes on) to save them from communism, it looks a lot more like the US is the dictatorship. The US is a bully smashing communist and Muslim faces into the gro

              • Maybe. The us playing as the world savior didn't help for sure, although there is a case to be made that communism is a utopia and cannot be realized.

                Communism requires a dictatorship of the people.

                But if the dictatorship actually is "of the people", i highly doubt it would function well and not get destroyed from within our without rapidly.

                If it isn't of the people, we get China and Russia. History showed us that benevolent dictators are the exception.

                • I would argue the difficulty of maintaining a government "of the people" is not unique to communism. Capitalism has the problem that private power gets hoarded by the bourgeoisie, thus you end up with the situation today where billionaires basically live in a world without laws or taxes. Also, Leftists/Marxists have a lot of literature and thought on counter-revolution. You are not the first to notice maintaining a society of equals is difficult. Doing so when you're being attacked and subverted from all si

                  • But China did become capitalist. Even if the state has a lot of control over private industries, their economic system now is thousands of time closer to capitalism than to communism. The main difference is that they are not an honest player on the international stage, where they tightly control access to their market while being given nearly free access to everywhere else.

            • The fact that every attempt at creating a communist country ended in a dictatorship (and the fact that communism is a utopia, which is doomed to fail for as long as resources are limited, due to human individualism and greed) doesn't mean that the dictatorships that claim to be communist are communist.

              What you're doing is trying to turn a guaranteed atrocity into a philosophical argument, no good comes from that. Sure, you can argue "it wasn't true communism" all you want, but the fact remains: every time Humans push for communism the result is genocide. At some point you have to just stop and go "maybe we shouldn't do that thing, you can't get there from here even if it seems like a good idea, which we can't actually prove."

              • What I said implies nothing about whether communism itself is a good system or not.

                The fact that true communism was never achieved and all attempts ended in atrocity is not exclusive to the idea that true communism may also be a shitty system.

                True communism sounds good on paper, but it does have a lot of issues too. That's another debate.

        • China is far worse, it is an Autocracy, it is an authoritarian dictatorship in communist rags. The real ideology of China is now far closer to fascism than anything espoused by Marx, et. al.

          That's literally what communism is in every implementation case. Communism is bait to get people to go along with atrocities, no one in power fights to give up power, they just tell people that's what they do for the sake of getting support.

      • "And yet there's still people in the world dumb enough to tolerate and/or do business with communists."

        Why do communist nations get so much hate yet I rarely see any concern for monarchs?

        And as best as I can tell, Republics outnumber Communist countries by ~20:1. They lost. In time, they will be gone.

        • Because as shit as monarchies are, they have committed far less genocides effectively. You're comparing a sub-100% coverage of atrocities (monarchies) with a system that has yielded in 100% of cases mass suffering (communism.)

          • What genocides have happened in Cuba since they went Communist?

            And, weren't the Soviet Communists integral in defeating the NAZIs, helping prevent the continuation of the Jewish genocide?

            I'm not saying communism is good, but it seems many like to blindly call it the boogeyman.

            • And, weren't the Soviet Communists integral in defeating the NAZIs, helping prevent the continuation of the Jewish genocide?

              Stalin killed WAY more people than the NAZIs did.

            • What genocides have happened in Cuba since they went Communist?

              Not all genocides are instant, the more insidious kind are long and drawn out picking off a few at a time consistently, here's the latest: 1 [youtube.com], 1 [youtube.com].

    • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      How is this different to what US companies do? They are all harvesting personal data, there are very few data protection laws to prevent them doing it.

      Seems like BGI just got the jump on them, that's all.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        The U.S. companies are not the state, yet. However, now that corporations have individual rights, their ability to control the state is increasing.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Is there much real difference? The state has National Security Letters, if the NSA hasn't already hacked them.

          FWIW BGI are saying that the Chinese state has not requested any data from them either. I really don't see any difference between that and the situation in the US, especially as neither countries have strong laws protecting this kind of personal data or regulating it's use.

  • Weasel Words (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WoodstockJeff ( 568111 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @09:46PM (#61561285) Homepage

    BGI said it "has never been asked to provide -- nor provided -- data from its NIFTY tests to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense purposes."

    So, just what purposes DID they provide the information to Chinese authorities?

    • Have a listen to Josh Rogin on The Realignment:

      https://youtu.be/BXyGYWl8G0E [youtu.be]

      He's the best reporter on this stuff and makes clear that the CCP views all technology platforms as dual-use.

      That's why the French were kicked out of the Wuhan BSL4. After they built the damn thing as a cooperation overture.

  • People in China don't have civil rights (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @09:51PM (#61561297)
    news at 11. I'm not trying to make light of this, but it's pretty clear nobody really much cares save a handful of people with zero (or even negative) political power. As long as they're making all our stuff and as long as they're doing it cheaply enough to keep inflation down nobody's going to care. As Walmart puts it, Save Money, Live Better.

  • At times like this, (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @10:16PM (#61561327)

    and also prompted by many other events in the past few decades, I wonder if the people who were all "Rah! Rah!" over globalization ever think about how much better off we might be if we had maintained a greater degree of insularity and independence from other nations.

    It occurs to me that globalization is somewhat analogous to keeping borders fully open during a pandemic. Cultural, political, ideological, and tactical "infections" can more fully and rapidly spread into populations that haven't formed an immunity to them.

    • The problem is not globalisation, per-say. China is exploiting it for nationalist end. The problem of China can be mitigated with more globalisation, not less. Sharing the fruits of freedom with more people not less, the rest of Asian, South America and Africa.

      The big goal of humanity needs to be global freedom, global democracy. Rational people should be working to end petty and small minded nationalism. The nation state is dead, it just doesn't know it, and if we are not very careful it might just provide

      • How are they exploiting it for nationalistic ends? This is just people hand wringing that a Chinese company might cooperate with the state somehow. American corporations cooperate with the state, military and police all the time. America also has one of the worst track records over history for human rights.

      • Or in other words, There Is No Alternative.

        If globalisation isn't working then it's because there's not enough of it. It can be no other way.

        • Or in other words, There Is No Alternative.

          If globalisation isn't working then it's because there's not enough of it. It can be no other way.

          You could cut your country off from the world North Korea style. But don't expect a much better outcome than they achieved.

          • Alternatively democratic nations could have free trade rules only amongst themselves and let trade deals be ad hoc, limited and designed to achieve geopolitcal aims by simple design rather than religious faith in globalisation going hand in hand with progress.

            I get part of your plan.

            1. Open the borders
            2. All the people from failed nations with backwards cultures come to the west, outnumbering progressives and being at a severe productivity deficit for many generations (potentially indefinetely if economic p

            • Maybe I misunderstood your initial premise. I assumed if you didn't want globalization, you were implying that you would cut your country off, thinking you could go it alone.

              But I see what you're proposing now isn't just cutting your country off.
              It's banding together to force some other country(s) to be cut off. It could work.

              You'd have to have a reason that countries would choose your group over the other group. Get bullied by China or bullied by America. It's not so clear you could stop enough countri

          • Nice false dichotomy, globalist.

    • Re: At times like this, (Score:4, Insightful)

      by peppepz ( 1311345 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @03:05AM (#61561641)
      Globalization without limits is bad, of course. But how much better the world is when nations trade freely instead of waging war is measurable. Just look at the global poverty rate. If anything, it's the resurgence of nationalism, as we see in China, that we have to fear. Nation-states are a relic of the 800s and have brought about hatred, misery and death.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Whatever, the U.S. has allies, China has none, unless you count the Norks.

      • Japan was making noises not too long ago about a potential alliance between China and Russia. That would be interesting, although I imagine the ultimate outcome would be all the russians learning Chinese and kow towing to Glorious Leader Winnie the Pooh.

    • Its intent is to level all humanity to the lowest common denominator by destroying every national, group and individual advantage, and it is working.

  • Rational people (Score:3)

    by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @12:52AM (#61561489) Journal

    Rational people have had good reason to be sceptical of the American industrial complex for a long time because of their past abuses but they have been bound to some extent by US constitution sensibilities.

    So if you thought that was bad, imagine how bad will it be when the leaders think human rights come at very best second to the needs of the state.

  • that would assist the development of their next wave of bio weapons after their successful covid test run.

  • Eugenics (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LenKagetsu ( 6196102 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @04:36AM (#61561757)

    Large scale harvesting of genetic info is one of the biggest warnings for both eugenics and genocide. Think about how many women in the US alone were sterilized without their knowledge and against their will. [pbs.org]

    The CCP is the 21st century version of the Nazis.

  • Genetically engineered plague on the way! (Score:3)

    by BubbaDave ( 1352535 ) on Thursday July 08, 2021 @09:36AM (#61562165)

    How can you make a plague that kills 100% of your enemy without your enemy's DNA?

    • Over the past couple of decades, Chinese military leaders have made a number of public statements to the effect that Chinese scientists are working on a disease that will kill any non-Chinese person. These statements have generally not received much press in western countries, but they have indeed been repeatedly made and anybody can find them by searching.

      China is officially a communist nation, which means [among other things] it's only political party is one with all of its government [including the milit

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