The Associated Press’ Matthew Brown reports on indications that public security authorities are laying groundwork for the mass collection of biometric data in the Xinjiang region, leading to concerns over a potential lack of oversight. Xinjiang is the frontline of a controversial crackdown on terrorism that has for years been criticized by…
The Associated Press’ Matthew Brown reports on indications that public security authorities are laying groundwork for the mass collection of biometric data in the Xinjiang region, leading to concerns over a potential lack of oversight. Xinjiang is the frontline of a controversial crackdown on terrorism that has for years been criticized by human rights advocates for targeting members of the Uyghur ethnic minority, and exacerbating underlying ethnic tensions.
The purchases of DNA testing equipment in Xinjiang were confirmed by an official at the regional Public Security Bureau. The official, who gave only her surname, Huang, said a supplier already had been found. In Xinjiang’s Sheche County, suppliers were being sought for voiceprint collection systems and 3-D portrait systems, according to a security official surnamed Yin, who declined to give further details. If used at full capacity, the new equipment could be used to profile up to 10,000 DNA samples a day and several million a year, said Yves Moreau, a computational biologist specializing in genome analysis and DNA privacy at the University of Leuven in Belgium. The scale of the purchases raises “a legitimate concern that Chinese authorities could be planning to DNA profile a large fraction, or even all” of the Uighur people in Xinjiang, Moreau said. […] Since it started collecting DNA profiles in 1989, China has amassed the unique genetic information on more than 40 million people, constituting the world’s largest DNA database, according to a study last year by forensic researchers at the China Ministry of Public Security.
