Coronavirus: Andrew Forrest-linked China firms on US blacklist

The Chinese company behind Andrew Forrest’s controversial coronavirus test deal has had two subsidiaries black-listed by US authorities.

Businessman Andrew Forrest. Picture: AAP

The Chinese company at the centre of Andrew Forrest’s delivery of millions of coronavirus testing kits to Australia has had two subsidiaries black-listed by the US Department of Commerce.

Xinjian Silk Road BGI and Beijing Liuhe BGI, subsidiaries of Chinese gene-sequencing company BGI Group, were added to the US’s Entity List over what the department alleged was their involvement in human rights abuses of China’s Muslim minorities.

BGI Genomics was the key entity secured by Mr Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation in April to deliver 10 million COVID-19 test kits and pathology equipment to Australia.

A press conference by Mr Forrest and Health Minister Greg Hunt at the time of the deal’s announcement attracted controversy after the iron ore billionaire invited Chinese consul-general Zhou Long to speak alongside him.

Tensions between Beijing and Canberra were inflamed at the time over Australia’s calls for an inquiry into China’s role in the ­coronavirus outbreak.

The two BGI subsidiaries were among 11 Chinese companies added to the Entity List over suspected human rights abuses.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the companies had been involved in a “campaign of repressions, mass arbitrary detention, forced labour, involuntary collection of biometric data and genetic analyses targeted at Muslim minority groups from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region”.

“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labour and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” he said in a statement.

“This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenceless Muslim minority populations.”

The two subsidiaries of BGI — formerly known as Beijing Genomics Institute — had been linked to the conducting of genetic analyses “to further the repression of Uighurs and other Muslim ­minorities”.

The Chinese government has detained more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang province, where they are forced to study communist propaganda and produce products for export.

ASPI analyst Vicky Xiuzhong Xu said Chinese genetics companies, which had “deep ties” to the Chinese state, were pushing to expand their markets internationally during the pandemic.

“They are required by Chinese law to co-­operate with Chinese intelligence work. So when they’re collecting so much data, especially health data, it can be worrying,” she said.

The nine manufacturing companies added to the Entity List were identified in another ASPI report, Uighurs for Sale, as using forced Uighur labour to produce products for well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors.

ASPI found an estimated 80,000 Uighurs had been transported from Xinjiang to other parts of the country to work in factories that were part of the global supply chains of companies such as Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.

China has persistently rejected all claims on the alleged treatment of Uighurs, maintaining that there are no concentration camps.

Mr Forrest, whose Fortescue Metals Group sells almost all its production into China, has long called for stronger ties between Australia and China.

His philanthropic organisation, Minderoo Foundation, said it was asked by the federal government to help procure COVID-19 testing capacity and was “pleased to have been able to do so”.

“Our only priority has been to do what the Australian government has asked us to do: deliver and install critical COVID-19 PCR testing equipment and tests that substantially increase Australia’s testing capacity,” a spokesperson said.