A Chinese company offered to set up a New Crown virus testing laboratory in the United States early in the outbreak, which U.S. intelligence officials warned could be for the purpose of collecting DNA profiles of U.S. citizens, according to a report on CBS’s “60 Minutes.
The report noted that China’s UW Genetics offered to set up and run testing labs in the states of Washington, New York and California.
The offer raised suspicions. William Evinina, then director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, warned the states not to accept the offer.
“Foreign powers could collect, store and use biometric information from the new crown test,” Evinina said on “60 Minutes.”
Evinina is concerned that China could use companies like UW Genetics to collect biometric data, which he argues could threaten national security as the world begins to pay more attention to such assets, collected in secret.
He said the biodata could dictate the direction of health care, pointing to various medical problems that are prevalent now or in the future, allowing one entity to monopolize the treatments or drugs they need to solve those medical problems.
“It shows the evil mindset of the Chinese Communist Party to take advantage of a worldwide crisis like the new crown,” he said. “We have made recommendations not only to every American, but to hospitals, associations and clinics.”
Evinina said he believes China is actively controlling biological data that most people do not currently value. While none of the states are currently accepting UWM’s offer, Evinina warned that Chinese companies have been investing in U.S. biotech companies for years. UW Genetics has been developing partnerships with U.S. hospitals since long before the new crown began.
UW Genetics denied all the allegations.
“Any allegation that the genomic data of U.S. citizens has been compromised as a result of UWG’s activities in the United States is unfounded,” UWG said in a statement.
The company’s Web site notes that UW Genetics, based in Shenzhen, China, has overseas centers and core laboratories in Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific, forming a network that “covers the whole country and radiates globally. The company’s goals include “suppressing the risk of major diseases to human beings, achieving precise cures for infections, and fully contributing to precision Medicine.”
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