U.S. adds Chinese genetics company units to trade blacklist

The Biden administration on Thursday added two units of prominent Chinese genetics company BGI to a trade blacklist, accusing the firms of posing 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.

The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, added BGI Research; BGI Tech Solutions (Hongkong) to the export control list. In 2020, the Commerce Department added two units of BGI Group, the world's largest genomics company, to its economic blacklist over allegations of conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of China's minority Uighurs has denied wrongdoing. BGI denied allegations of wrongdoing in 2020.