US expresses concern over China collecting Tibetan DNA

washington (Best Hindu News): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has publicly expressed concern over reports of China collecting DNA of Tibetans. He is the most senior US official ever to take up the issue. As the featured speaker at Freedom House’s annual Freedom Awards on Wednesday, Blinken said: We are also concerned by reports of the proliferation of large-scale DNA collection in Tibet, which is another method of control and surveillance of the Tibetan population.

In September 2022, Citizen Lab reported that Chinese police have collected around 9.20 lakh to 12 lakh DNA samples in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in six years. The TAR covers almost half of traditional Tibet.

These figures represent one-quarter to one-third of the region’s total population.

In the same month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Chinese authorities were systematically collecting DNA from TAR residents, including taking blood samples from children as young as five, without parental consent.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has counter-accused Blinken’s statement.

However, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) welcomed the secretary’s remarks.

Washington DC. And the Europe-based ICT said, during its brutal occupation of Tibet, China has used Tibet as a laboratory for relentless methods of social control, including this horrific campaign of mass DNA collection.

The best way to save Tibetans from China’s totalitarian rule is to push for a peaceful solution to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet. The US can do this by passing a bipartisan propaganda resolution on the Tibet-China Conflict Act pending in both houses of Congress.

According to Citizen Lab, China’s DNA collection program is not related to criminal justice.

Our analysis shows that over the years, police across Tibet have collected DNA samples from men, women and children, none of whom appear to be criminal suspects, Citizen Lab said in its report.

The police are also not targeting specific groups such as activists or critics of the government. Instead, they are collecting DNA from the entire community.

Similarly, HRW noted in its report that there is no publicly available evidence to suggest that individuals have a choice to refuse or that police have credible evidence of criminal conduct that warrants such collection. .

Responding to a question about Blinken’s comments, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin claimed at a press briefing on Wednesday that he had no intention other than to create sensational news.

Wang then accused the US military of collecting genomic data from Chinese, Arab and European Aryans.

China has illegally occupied Tibet for more than 60 years, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959.

Earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans in both houses of the US Congress reintroduced a bill that could help resolve the occupation peacefully.

The passage of the Tibet-China Conflict Act will put pressure on China to resume talks with the Dalai Lama’s emissaries. Talks between the two sides had stalled in 2010.

This law will recognize the right of Tibetans to self-determination.