China is collecting, analyzing, and storing the DNA of massive numbers of its own citizens. But it is also collecting the DNA of many other peoples from around the world, including millions of
Americans. DNA decoding in China is fast, cheap–and frightening in its implications.
The China program alone is breathtaking in its scope and seems designed to encompass the country’s entire population—currently some 1.4 billion people—over time. There are a number of DNA collection projects that have already been completed, while others are currently underway.
For example, there is a national DNA collection project focused exclusively on men, another regional project targeted on “troublesome” minorities like the Uyghurs and Kazakhs, and still others focused on the general population. Everybody in Xinjiang has already been forced to hand over their DNA, for example, not just a million or so Muslims in re-education camps.
“The Chinese Communist Party often talks about having three “magic weapons,” says PRI President Steven Mosher. “As Chinese leader Xi Jinping told us in a September 2014 speech, these are “the People’s Liberation Army, propaganda, and United Front tactics.”
“But China is now adding a fourth magic weapon: DNA,” says Mosher. “Could its vast store of genetic material be used to develop bioweapons? The prospects are frightening.”
Mosher is the author of the bestselling “Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream is the New Threat to World Order.”
You can read the full PDF version of the press release here.
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The Population Research Institute (PRI) is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization dedicated to promoting respect for human rights in the context of population issues. To learn more about PRI’s work, visit www.pop.org.
