China uses DNA tech to spy on people. Yale geneticist and a U.S. biotech helped.

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

This is a heck of a story about how genetic surveillance, powered by American know-how, is being used to oppress the Muslim minority Uighur population and others in China, from the New York Times.

The Uighur people of China are mostly Muslim, and China does awful things to make them comply with state rule. More than a million people, many Uighur, have been detained in what Xi Jinping's administration calls “re-education” camps. Now, DNA technology has become a useful weapon.

China used Thermo Fisher’s equipment to map the genes of its people, according to five Ministry of Public Security patent filings. Authorities in Xinjiang said that Thermo Fisher's machines are important for DNA inspections in criminal cases and have “no substitutes in China.”

— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) February 21, 2019

Thermo Fisher is the Massachussetts-based firm highlighted in this report. They're on Twitter.

And Yale geneticist Kenneth Kidd is the American whose expertise was so central to the plan.

Excerpt from Sui-Lee Wee's NYT report:

Collecting genetic material is a key part of China’s campaign, according to human rights groups and Uighur activists. They say a comprehensive DNA database could be used to chase down any Uighurs who resist conforming to the campaign.

Police forces in the United States and elsewhere use genetic material from family members to find suspects and solve crimes. Chinese officials, who are building a broad nationwide database of DNA samples, have cited the crime-fighting benefits of China’s own genetic studies.