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by Natalie Winters
March 05, 2021
from
TheNationalPulse Website
BGI Genomics
- the Chinese Communist Party-linked genomics firm
flagged by U.S. officials as "mining" the DNA of Americans -
has
collaborated extensively with
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
The National Pulse reveals.
The
company has recently come under fire following a
60
Minutes exposé on the company's use of
COVID-19 tests to,
"collect,
store and exploit biometric information" on American citizens,
according to former U.S. intelligence officials...
What's more, a
recent Reuters article
linked the firm to the Chinese Communist Party's
military.
In addition to
the
Obama administration
enabling the firm to gain a foothold in the U.S., the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation played a critical role in BGI's
American expansion.
In September
of 2012,
Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder's
Foundation
signed a,
"Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a
collaboration on global health and agricultural development with the
goal of achieving common objectives in health and agricultural
development."
The co-founder
of
BGI praised the agreement, celebrating the forthcoming,
"scientific breakthroughs in the areas of human, plant and animal
genomics."
He also revealed that the collaborative efforts focused
on sequencing genomes - the precise activity flagged for national
security threats in the 60 Minutes segment:
"Having contributed to the
Human Genome Project as well as
sequencing the genomes of many critical plant and animal species
and human diseases, including the initial sequencing of the rice
genome as well as our involvement in,
-
the Rice 10,000 Genome
Project
-
the 1,000 Plants and Animals Genome Project
-
the
International 1,000 genomes project
-
the 1,000 Rare Diseases
Project
-
the International Cancer Genome Project
-
Autism Genome
10K,
...among others, BGI looks forward to partnering with the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation in this significant collaboration to
apply genomics research to 'benefit global human
health'."
GATES & BGI CO-FOUNDER WANG JUN
AT THE 2015 BOAO FORUM.
The memorandum
predates Gates's 2010 visit to BGI's China-based headquarters, where
he witnessed the company's genetic sequencing operation as
described by the Financial
Times:
In
2010, Bill Gates visited an unremarkable building in an
industrial estate on the outskirts of Shenzhen, China.
With row
after row of high-tech machinery humming inside, the place could
easily be mistaken for an anonymous data warehouse.
But Mr Gates
and Ray Yip, head of the Gates Foundation's China operation, saw
something else that day.
As they toured the BGI headquarters,
the two men were stunned by the ambition of the scientists
working at the biotech company.
Inside, more than 150 state of
the art genetic sequencing machines were analyzing the
equivalent of thousands of human genomes a day.
The company is
working towards a goal ,
building a
huge library based on the DNA of many millions
of people...
BGI executives see this not as
the end-game, but as the springboard for new drug discoveries,
advanced genetic research and a transformation of public health
policy.
Ray Yip praised
the endeavor as "out-of-the-box," "open," and "liberal":
"We
were taken aback.
We never thought we would find such an
out-of-the-box approach. They are in their own league -
open and liberal. Most people only see them as a service
provider for DNA analysis.
It is the database they are building
that will make them formidable."
The Gates
Foundation has also
funded BGI projects relating to genome sequencing
alongside Chinese Communist Party bodies such as the,
Similarly, Dr.
Tadataka Yamada, the former president of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation's global health program,
serves as the Chairman of BGI's Scientific Advisory Board.
GATES AND BGI RESEARCHERS.
And in 2016,
BGI launched a U.S.-based office in Washington - the home state of
Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
BGI's
ties to Washington also appear to have influenced the firm's
decision to target the state with its COVID-19 test kits, part of
the company's plot to
"mine" the data of Americans:
"Early last
March, the state of Washington was the site of the first major coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.
As COVID rates and the need for
tests were spiking, BGI Group, the world's largest biotech firm - a
global giant based in China - approached the state of Washington
with an enticing offer.
In a
strikingly personal letter to the governor, BGI proposed to build
and help run state-of-the-art COVID testing labs," 60 Minutes
summarized.
But officials
ultimately turned down the offer at the request of the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence over BGI's ties to the Chinese
government...
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