Yves Moreau

Professor Moreau, who campaigns against the “creeping development of mass surveillance technology”, said that computer scientists should think about the parameters of “acceptable” research. “Do we really need…models that [track] groups like Tibetans and Uighurs?”

Do we really need to have models that [track] groups like Tibetans and Uyghurs that are really quite vulnerable in China? Computer scientists should really start reflecting about what research is acceptable and not acceptable. We have been playing with fire in an arsenal with what we've been doing with surveillance technology.

Concerns about Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang and the mass DNA collection nationwide, led academics to write an open letter in June asking the scientific community whether it was acceptable to continue publishing such research papers from China. Photo: AFP

Paradoxalement, et bien qu’elles nous attirent vers leurs flammes spéculatrices, les lumières des cryptomonnaies n’indiquent-elles pas le chemin d’un monde où l’Argent ne serait plus le centre de l’univers ?

Twee wetenschappelijke tijdschriften hebben publicaties van een Chinese onderzoeker van het Erasmus Medisch Centrum teruggetrokken, zo blijkt uit onderzoek van Follow the Money en RTL Nieuws. Hij kon onvoldoende aantonen dat Oeigoeren, een vervolgde minderheid in China, toestemming hebben gegeven voor het afstaan van hun dna. ‘Terugtrekking van een wetenschappelijk artikel op ethische gronden is zeer zeldzaam.’

Nine members of the editorial board of the journal Molecular Genetics and Genomic Medicine have resigned after the journal’s editor failed to tackle concerns that it had published articles from China potentially useful in the genetic surveillance of oppressed minorities, such as the Uyghurs of Xinjiang province.

'‘If we think people will get hurt, we have to do something about it,' says researcher Yves Moreau. Yves Moreau is a professor and bioinformatician at the University of Leuven in Belgium whose research focuses on AI algorithms and software platforms for the integration of complex data in clinical genomics and drug discovery. His LinkedIn profile says he is “engaged in a reflection on how information technology and artificial intelligence are transforming our world and on how to make sure this t

When Yves Moreau, a bioinformatician at KU Leuven in Belgium, noticed a 2017 paper in Human Genetics that described the “male genetic landscape of China” based on a set of almost 38,000 Y-STR sequences, he saw a red flag. Y-STR stands for Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat polymorphism, bits of repetitive DNA often used in forensic investigations. Some of the samples came from Uyghurs and other minorities in China, and Moreau was skeptical that they had given informed consent for the use of their

Moreau said he will persist. “At this point, you cannot stay silent,” he told the Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine editorial board in one email. “This situation is creating a shameful embarrassment that reflects poorly on all medical genetics journals and on the entire medical genetics community. Public trust in human genetics depends on our community’s ability to transparently abide by its moral duty.”

‘In de middeleeuwen waren de grenzen tussen landen vaak niet goed gedefinieerd. Pas toen de cartografen het land goed in kaart brachten, kwamen er grenzen die op de meter nauwkeurig bekend waren. Dat was het begin van de natiestaten. Als je kaarten maakt van de genetica van de mens, creëert dat de mogelijkheid om grenzen te trekken. Dat is zorgwekkend.’ Moreau noemt het voorbeeld van de Hutu’s en de Tutsi’s: ‘Het vastleggen en daarna registreren van de Hutu- en Tutsi-etniciteit op basis van fysieke kenmerken, door de koloniale overheersers begin twintigste eeuw, speelde een belangrijke rol in de Rwandese genocide. Dat is iets wat me echt angst aanjaagt.’

"Although sanctions are only targeting Xinjiang actors, ethical issues surrounding human identification extend to the whole of China. The national male Y-DNA program is a massive invasion of privacy. The national (autosomal) DNA database often targets socially undesirable groups (sex workers, drug addicts, political opponents, local petitioners, etc.)."

Talk at at the Workshop on Privacy Challenges in the Health Sector through Emerging Technologies. July 13, 2021.

"Thermo Fisher and Promega could control the flow of human identification products by imposing contractual commitments to their distributors not to sell those products to sanctioned entities and to pass these contractual constraints to any subdistributor and to any end user. These contractual clauses should be accompanied by meaningful penalties."

"Such large-scale data not only reduces the ability of law enforcement to report crimes, but also creates various forms of discrimination and control" [in Uyghur language]

Note: My personal stance is that a blanket boycott of Chinese research would indeed be counterproductive. I favor the rejection of unethical research wherever it comes from. However, I consider that this question needs to be openly discussed by academics. This is why the title of the academic article was formulated as a question ("China – is it time to consider a boycott?”).

Nature News says Yves Moreau from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium uncovered a review profiles of Chinese men in YHRD that included authors from the Chinese public security and police forces, which he says suggests it was unlikely that true informed consent was obtained.

In March 2019, Moreau began looking into studies of minority populations in China. He spotted a 2017 review of almost 38,000 Y-chromosome profiles of men in China, held in the YHRD. It was co-authored by Willuweit and Roewer; other authors included researchers from Chinese public-security and police forces. “I realized that the YHRD was a problem,” says Moreau. The review stated that the profiles had been collected with informed consent — but Moreau argues that it’s hard to see how Uyghurs and other persecuted minority groups could have freely given it.

“I mean, some professor who doesn’t speak Chinese sits on Google in the evening and finds that stuff,” Professor Moreau said. “What is the process that they have put in place to avoid things like that from happening? They should have caught this much earlier than me.”

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