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Lawmakers Send Letter on BGI

Two Republican lawmakers are calling on the Biden Administration to add BGI to the US export blacklist, National Review reports.

It adds that the lawmakers, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, are concerned that the genomics company is collecting data on US citizens.

"BGI has used its dominant position to further the [Chinese Communist Party's] strategic goals by acquiring sensitive health data from the rest of the world. BGI and at least 14 other Chinese companies perform genomic sequencing for US healthcare patients," Cotton and Gallagher write in a letter to the secretaries of Defense, Treasury, and Commerce, adding that the companies likely have shared their data with the Chinese government. They also reference Reuters' recent report that BGI developed its prenatal genetic test in conjunction with the Chinese military, though BGI has said it developed its test on its own.

Cotton and Gallagher go on to urge that BGI and other Chinese biotech companies be added to Treasury's Non-SDN Chinese Military Industrial Complex Companies List, Commerce's Entity List, and DoD's list of Chinese military companies, Fox Business adds.