The UK is “ignoring” the threat from China to Britain’s biosecurity, Sir Iain Duncan Smith said.
The former Conservative Party leader urged the government to protect Britons’ genomics data from Chinese scientists, who he says “could use it for targeted bioweapons.”
In 2021, the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence said in its final report on AI security that Chinese genomics giant BGI may have been “serving, wittingly or unwittingly, as a global collection mechanism for Chinese government genetic databases, providing China with greater raw numbers and diversity of human genome samples as well as access to sensitive personal information about key individuals around the world.”
People in the UK are “becoming hugely vulnerable” to the threat as advanced biotechnology is coupled with AI in China, Sir Iain said.
“Like other advanced technologies, genomics, when used legitimately, can help create new drugs to fight diseases like cancer. However, its dual-use potential means it can also be used to create targeted bioweapons or pathogens,” he said.
“Indeed, worryingly, the CCP has already used genomic data to profile ethnic minorities whilst using human embryos for performance modification.”
Three BGI subsidies have been sanctioned by the United States over human rights and securities concerns.
BGI previously denied it had provided NIFTY data to Chinese authorities for national security or national defense security purposes. It has also denied involvement in human rights abuses or being state-owned or state-controlled.
In January this year, a bill was introduced in the United States to ban products and services from biotechnology companies that are connected to foreign adversaries from U.S. public supply chains.
Referring to the bill, Sir Iain said the United States “has now woken up to this threat” while “the UK’s position in this debate is a mess.”
“If large UK private healthcare providers like Bupa or Oxford Nanopore work with BGI or MGI, this will seriously undermine attempts to protect UK citizens,” he wrote.
“The government’s language of “de-risking” on China is pointless without stronger guidance to private sector and research bodies that long-term costs to national and economic security outweigh the short-term gains of using cheaper Chinese firms.
“Worse, public contractors, such as Eurofins, already work with Chinese genomics companies like MGI, while still having access to sensitive contracts with the Ministry of Defence, National Crime Agency, and Porton Down,” he added.
The Tory former minister’s warning was echoed by Labour’s Fabian Hamilton, who separately warned of the risks of opening UK genomic data to global rivals.
Writing in the newspaper, Mr. Hamilton likened genomics’ progress to AI and claimed it will “very likely form the backbone of medical treatments in the future.”
The Leeds North East MP, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, praised his own party’s life sciences strategy which aims to support genomics in health care.
But he added: “The strength of our life sciences sector will depend upon the amount of data available, and how exposed public and private sector organisations—from the NHS to major companies such as Bupa and Oxford Nanopore—are to state and non-state actors.
“In this light, China’s quest for genomic data is part of an attempt to dominate the world’s life sciences industry.”
Mr. Hamilton claimed the government was “failing to respond to security challenges that are well understood,” and said there were “serious national security implications for a lack of action.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have invested more than £338 million to boost cyber resilience across health and social care.
“Our cyber security specialists monitor for new threats 24 hours a day and we continually allocate resources to ensure risks are minimised and patient data is protected.
“Building on our cyber security strategy which prioritises patient safety, we are working on a new programme to enhance protection and reduce the risk of an attack across the sector.”
