US ban on DNA equipment to backfire

Move another way to target China, will only help local firms: experts

A US blockade on sales of DNA equipment and related products to Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region would be just another way for US politicians to target China over widely debunked lies about Xinjiang, and it will only speed the rise of domestic substitutes, Chinese industry insiders and experts said.

The comments came as some US politicians and experts called on the US government to toughen supervision of US exports to China, especially

Xinjiang, after news reports that a large amount of DNA equipment produced by US companies had still flowed to Xinjiang despite restrictions.

The New York Times reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of DNA equipment produced by Thermo Fisher and Promega, two US biochemistry giants, were still sold to China despite US government efforts to prevent such transactions based on claims that those products might be used by local authorities to track people.

Chinese experts noted that sales of DNA equipment are normal among countries and that US politicians’ and media outlets’ claims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang have been widely debunked and proven to be lies.

A customer service staffer at Thermo Fisher said on Wednesday that the company’s exports to the Chinese market were “all normal at the present.”

“Many Chinese customers approached us directly to place orders, and products sell well,” she said. The person added that she wasn’t clear about the US export ban on DNA sequencers or other products to China.

Chinese experts criticized the US for using any “excuses or means” to just crack down on China and stressed that such a blockade would only help China to develop its own technologies and products at a faster speed.

In terms of genetic testing products, Chinese companies already have the capacity to supply the domestic market, Tian Hongjian, a director with the China Medicinal Biotech Association, told the Global Times.

“China can produce enough biological reagent products, and many of the US’ advanced biological reagent companies have set up plants in China. The US toughening controls on exports of those products to China will only push Chinese companies to gradually replace US firms in domestic supplies,” Tian said.

Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said that the US crackdown would prompt Chinese companies to speed up technological research to fulfill the gap left by US companies that are being pressured out of the Chinese market by US politics.

“The more the US blocks US firms from Chinese consumers, the faster Chinese firms will replace them,” Cong said.