China’s largest genomics company, which gained access to U.S. markets and flooded the country with COVID-19 tests early in the pandemic, was named a “Chinese Military Company” by the Pentagon.
Chinese government-backed BGI Group, which operates its BGI Americas subsidiary out of Massachusetts, sent millions of coronavirus tests around the world and received approval to do so inside the United States from the Food and Drug Administration in 2020.
On Wednesday, it was added to a list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S. by the Defense Department.
An initial tranche of 47 Chinese companies, including global telecommunications giant Huawei, was added to the Pentagon list in July 2021, but BGI joined Chinese drone maker DJI and 10 other Chinese companies on the list this week.
“The Department is determined to highlight and counter the People’s Republic of China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, which supports the modernization goals of the People’s Liberation Army by ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise are acquired and developed by PRC companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities,” the Pentagon said.
The designation of BGI, which bought the U.S. genomic sequencing firm Complete Genomics in 2013, could lead to restrictions on its use in the U.S.
DRONE MAKER USED BY FBI AND DHS IS CHINESE MILITARY COMPANY
BGI, which operates a large-scale Chinese gene databank and has a host of DNA sequencing contracts and other financial arrangements with universities and health groups across the globe, is controlled at least in part by the Shenzhen city government and the Chinese government’s State Development and Investment Corporation.
BGI announced in April 2020 that it had produced 10 million rapid COVID-19 tests under the FDA’s emergency-use authorization. The company said it was also “helping partners to set up emergency testing laboratories in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Asia.”
BGI Americas received a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Small Business Administration worth between $350,000 and $1 million, although it returned the loan in July 2020.
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned about BGI in February 2021, noting that BGI “has partnered with many research and healthcare entities in America to provide them with genomic sequencing services, while also gaining access to health records and genetic data on people in the U.S.”
“With the COVID-19 pandemic, the PRC aggressively marketed Chinese COVID-19 testing kits around the world, along with laboratories to support COVID-19 testing,” the NCSC said. “By August 2020, China’s leading genomics company, BGI, said it had sold test kits to 180 countries and established labs in 18 countries in the past six months.”
The agency added that “despite their aggressive pitches to U.S. states, there is no evidence Chinese companies have been able to establish such COVID-19 labs in the U.S.”
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted in its 2020 congressional report that the FDA granting emergency use to BGI was “the first time the FDA has approved a device manufactured in China.” The commission said BGI sold 35 million COVID-19 tests by August 2020, including inside the U.S.
BGI claimed in February 2021 that reports about its COVID-19 testing were “misleading” and denied the “baseless allegations.”
The Health and Human Services inspector general released a February 2019 report determining the National Institutes of Health “permitted access to genomic data to for-profit entities” including BGI “even though the FBI has identified those companies as having ties to the Chinese Government.” But that didn’t stop HHS from facilitating BGI during the pandemic.
BGI pushed nearly a dozen U.S. states to distribute coronavirus tests and attempted to get the products into government labs and even set up their own labs in Nevada and California, according to the Wall Street Journal in January 2021.
The HHS watchdog released another report in July 2021, concluding that the “NIH did not consider the risk presented by foreign principal investigators when permitting access to United States genomic data.”
In June 2020, Axios reported that BGI “engaged in gene sequencing of Xinjiang residents and has announced it would build a gene bank and a ‘judicial collaboration’ center in Xinjiang.”
The Commerce Department blacklisted two BGI subsidiaries in July 2020 for “conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Muslim minority groups” in Xinjiang. BGI defended itself that month.
It was further reported by Reuters in July 2021 that BGI is “selling prenatal tests around the world” and “developed them in collaboration with the country’s military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations.” BGI claimed its prenatal testing “was developed solely by BGI — not in partnership with China’s military.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
William Evanina, former director of the NCSC, warned in February 2021 about China’s efforts to obtain U.S. genetic information and other personal data, pointing a finger directly at BGI.
“They are the ultimate company that shows connectivity to both the communist state as well as the military apparatus,” Evanina said.
