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An American biotech company has announced that it will stop selling to China equipment used to create a DNA database of the country's Uyghur minority.
Thermo Fisher issued a statement Thursday following a New York Times article in which it mentioned "the help of US expertise" as part of the surveillance campaign led by China.
"As a world leader in scientific services, we recognize that it is important to consider how our products and services are used – or could be used – by our customers," said a spokesman for the company. .
Despite its low profile, Mbadachusetts-based Thermo Fisher is a major player in the scientific equipment market and generates $ 24 billion a year in revenue.
Since 2016, the Chinese authorities have regularly sampled blood in the Xinjiang region.
Xinjiang is home to most of China's Uyghur ethnic minority and has been under police surveillance in recent years as a result of violent ethnic tensions. According to a panel of UN experts, nearly one million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking minorities in China have reportedly been detained in re-education camps.
According to the New York Times, Chinese officials have presented blood tests as part of a free health check program. According to the official Xinhua news agency, some 36 million people participated in the survey, more than the Uyghur population.
In the spring of 2017, Human Rights Watch said China had ordered equipment to increase DNA sequencing capabilities – which the American science journal Nature has confirmed, naming Thermo Fisher as a supplier.
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