Residents from Tibet Autonomous Region were targeted for DNA collection by Chinese authorities. These samples were collected through finger-prick devices, as reported by Interesting Engineering.
As per the report, residents have not been given an option to refuse the request. Children at kindergartens were also asked to submit DNAs without consent from their parents.
Fourteen distinct locations across the municipalities in the western part of TAR where the DNA collection drives happened. It includes one prefecture, two counties, two towns, two townships, and seven villages.
Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson stated, "The Chinese government is already subjecting Tibetans to pervasive repression. Now the authorities are literally taking blood without consent to strengthen their surveillance capabilities."
The data collection was justified by the police as its purpose was to fight crimes. But as per The Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto's research, the people who participated in it did not have any records or criminal offenses. The authorities also said to the people that the reason for this may find missing people and may ensure social stability.
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Male Ancestry Investigation System
Since 2016, the laboratory also found that the DNA collection of the Chinese police has garnered 919,282 and 1,206,962 DNA samples that were collected from the 25.1% to 32.9% of the population of Tibet. These are done from fields, monasteries, residential neighborhoods, schools, and even businesses.
The same goes in 2017 as the Ministry of Public Security created the male ancestry investigation system to merge family records and generic data to 5 to 10 percent of its male citizens, with a total of 700 million. This was followed by the country's launched of an unprecedented DNA collection drive from residents of China.
La Trobe University Professor James Leibold told Vice, "China now has the world's largest forensic DNA database, and appears to be the only country in the world where police are harvesting en masse DNA samples outside the scope of criminal investigations."
These moves from China and its authorities alarm people because of the long history of state repression in the region. Since the 50s, a policy of where ethnicity needs to be normalized and accepted was maintained by Beijing. This policy hinders China from meddling in the education, religion, and language of Tibet.
This may lead to the extent of abusing power by having certain data that gives the country the power to control orders against the indigenous population.
Leibold added, "In addition to the gradual erasure of the Tibetan language, culture, and identity, the Chinese Communist Party is now turning to new high-tech forms of social control and repression."
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Written by Inno Flores
