Campaigns
ThermoFisher: Don't Help China Steal Tibetan DNA
December 26, 2023
Campaign WIN: On December 26, 2023, Thermo Fisher committed to ceasing the sales of Human Identification (HID) products — both direct and to third parties — in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Students for a Free Tibet launched this campaign against Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts-based company supplying DNA profiling technology in Tibet. We called on Thermo Fisher to stop enabling the Chinese government’s mass, non-consensual collection of Tibetan DNA.
The evidence
On September 5, 2022, Human Rights Watch released a report, China: New Evidence of Mass DNA Collection in Tibet. The report revealed that children as young as five years old in Tibet are included in a DNA collection drive that fundamentally violates basic norms of free and informed consent.
According to a September 2022 Citizen Lab report from the University of Toronto, Chinese authorities may have collected between 919,282 and 1,206,962 DNA samples in Tibet since 2016.
Why it matters
DNA collection violates privacy rights and bodily integrity. It intensifies the surveillance of Tibetans who are already subjected to sweeping cultural, religious, and language repression. Handing this technology to Chinese authorities means helping to build a database of an entire people against their will.
A pattern of complicity
This was not the first time Thermo Fisher faced scrutiny. In 2018–2019, the company was criticized for supplying DNA equipment to police in Xinjiang. Following a New York Times investigation in February 2019, Thermo Fisher announced it would stop selling equipment used for the mass DNA collection of Uyghurs.
Take action
Sign the pledge: Global Student Pledge: Thermo Fisher, Stop Stealing Tibetan DNA!
Every Tibetan deserves the right to say no. Add your name and help hold Thermo Fisher accountable.
Sources & further reading
- Human Rights Watch — New Evidence of Mass DNA Collection in Tibet
- Citizen Lab, University of Toronto — Mass DNA Collection in the Tibet Autonomous Region
- The New York Times — China Uses DNA to Track Its People
- Vice News — China Is Collecting DNA From Tibetans
- The Washington Post — U.S. companies and mass DNA collection in Tibet
- Bipartisan Commission Calls on the Biden Administration to Prohibit the Sale of DNA Surveillance Technology in Tibet