US company to stop selling China equipment to build Uighur DNA database

[Eugene]

Source: Agence France-Presse

An American biotechnology company has announced it will stop selling to China equipment used to create a DNA database of the country’s Uighur minority.

Thermo Fisher issued a statement on Thursday following a report in the New York Times which noted the “help of American expertise” in China’s campaign of surveillance.

“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.

Despite its low profile, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher is a major player in the scientific equipment market and has $24bn worth of revenue a year.

-snip-

Agence France-Presse
Fri 22 Feb 2019 06.45 GMT


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/22/us-company-to-stop-selling-china-equipment-to-build-uighur-dna-database

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The New York Times article mentioned: China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise

Subtitled: The Chinese authorities turned to a Massachusetts company and a prominent Yale researcher as they built an enormous system of surveillance and control.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. China is working hard to outdo Orwell's imagination. . . . nt

[oldsoftie]

2. Good. NEVER trust anything Chinese when it comes to stuff like this.

[dalton99a]

3. "Chinese officials presented the blood tests as part of a free health check-up program"

Yeah, it's free - and mandatory

This is Orwellian on a hitherto unknown scale

[Firestorm49]

4. The same thing is happening here, right under our noses.

Cameras at intersections, buildings, and on and on. It may seem innocuous enough right now, but at some point, as it may (has) have been designed for, it can be used to control crowd size, regulate movement, etc.

We may view cameras everywhere as a deterrent to crime, or a source to identify the less scrupulous among us, but the adverse potential, to be realized years down the road, may be more for the worse than the better.,