US adds Chinese firms BGI, Inspur to trade blacklist over surveillance allegations

New Delhi: The United States has added 37 companies to a trade blacklist, including units of Chinese genetics firm BGI and Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur, in a move that is expected to exacerbate tensions with Beijing.

The US Department of Commerce, which oversees export controls, stated that BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions (Hong Kong) present a significant risk of diversion to Chinese government surveillance.

“The addition of these entities is based upon information that indicates their collection and analysis of genetic data poses a significant risk of contributing to monitoring and surveillance by the government of China, which has been utilized in the repression of ethnic minorities in China,” it added.

The Commerce Department charged Inspur with acquiring and attempting to acquire US goods to aid China’s military modernization efforts.

According to CNN, the US Department of Commerce in 2020 had added BGI affiliates, Xinjiang Silk Road BGI and Beijing Liuhe BGI, to the trade blacklist over their alleged involvement in human rights abuse against Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang.

The BGI group denied the allegations and said it does not engage in unethical practices and does not provide gene technology for the surveillance of Uighurs.

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