Human Rights Watch and Citizen Lab have revealed in their recently published reports that Chinese Goverment have been collecting mass DNA samples across Tibetan Autonomous Region.
According to Citizen Lab report, it is estimated that between June 2016 and July 2022, police may have collected between roughly 919,282 and 1,206,962 DNA samples, representing between 25.1% to 32.9% population of Tibet Autonomous Regon (3.66 million).
The report also mentions that, “mass DNA collection in Tibet is another mass DNA collection campaign conducted under the Xi Jinping administration (2012–present), along with the mass DNA collection campaign in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the police-led national program of male DNA collection.”
The Chinese authorities under the guise to fight crime, find missing people, and ensure social stabiltiy have under taken DNA collection. However, police have targeted men, women, children, and monks, who are outside scope of any ongoing crimial investigation.
In a report released by the Human Rights Watch on September 5, Chinese authorities are significantly increasing policing, including arbitrary collection of DNA from residents in many towns and villages throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region and even children at Kintergartens are not spared.
Responding to reports, Kaydor Aukatsang, President of Asia Freedom Institute said, “It is deeply disturbing, although not surprising to see CCP resort to such an egregious acts of Human Rights violation. Since Xi Jinping took power in 2013, the repressive policies against Tibetans and other minorities have exacerbated. I call on the newly appointed UN High Commisoner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, to visit Tibet at the earliest, investigate into human rights violations inside Tibet, and make China accountable for its crime against humanity.”
Chen Quanguo, who was Tibet’s Party Secretary from (2011-2016) have implemented new forms of social control, including the grid management and convenience police post neighbourhood surveillance systems in Tibet, which he later conveniently replicated in East Turkestan during his tenure as the Regions Party Secretay from (2016-2021).
