Press Releases

Today, House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup D.P.M. (R-OH), Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party released the below statement following the 40 to 1 vote by the House Oversight Committee to advance the BIOSECURE Act the House floor.

“The House Oversight Committee just sent a powerful, bipartisan message to the Chinese Communist Party: the United States will not sit idly by while the CCP steals our genetic data and seeks to control our biotech supply chains. We are proud to lead the BIOSECURE Act and look forward to working with House leadership to get this bill on the floor as soon as possible.”

Background:

The Chinese Communist Party's national security laws require all Chinese firms to share any requested data with the CCP, including biotechnology companies that collect, test, and store American genomic data. Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), a company in the People's Republic of China (PRC), has collected DNA from millions around the world and used that data without consent on genomic projects conducted by the Chinese military. Chinese company WuXi AppTec has sponsored events with China's military, reportedly stolen U.S. intellectual property, and jointly operated genetic collection sites with China's military. Chinese biotechnology companies also have alarming ties to the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China.

Beijing Genomics Institute, now known as “BGI” is a PRC “national champion” biotechnology company that collects, stores, and analyzes DNA and other genomic information from people in the United States and around the world. BGI has engaged in the illicit collection of pregnant women’s DNA and conducted research with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) People’s Liberation Army. The U.S. government has placed export control restrictions on BGI for its involvement in the genetic tracking of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region where the CCP is conducting genocide against the Uyghur people. Beijing uses BGI as a strategic and diplomatic tool overseas, recruit foreign talent, and amass foreign genomic data. BGI is rapidly making inroads in the U.S. market after gaining access in August 2022, after years of litigation over theft of U.S intellectual property.

Why BIOSECURE Matters Now:

• WuXi AppTec makes over 60% of their revenue from the U.S. market, meaning U.S. consumers are directly facilitating the success of a company that poses a risk to our national security.
• BGI operates over 100 genetic collection laboratories in over 20 countries, infrastructure that the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission declared was providing “genetic data to serve PRC ambitions to dominate biotech.”
• BGI used a pre-natal test to harvest the genetic data of over 8 million pregnant women in Europe, without notifying them their data was going to the PRC. This data would later be used to conduct research with the People's Liberation Army.

The text of BIOSECURE Act can be found HERE.

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