What does the Chinese military want with your unborn baby’s genetic data?

Your unborn baby is already being monetized

Could data harvested from millions of pregnant women pave the way for genetically enhanced super-soldiers? According to a recent Reuters investigation, BGI Group, the manufacturers of a popular prenatal test, is working with the Chinese military towards that very goal.

BGI group offers a test called Nifty (“Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY”), which is offered in more than 50 countries and is used to look for genetic abnormalities such as Down’s syndrome early on in a pregnancy. According to Reuters, more than 8 million women have taken these tests, and BGI has used the genetic data it has collected to help the Chinese military improve “population quality”. Reuters reports that US government advisers have warned that access to this massive databank could “propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the US population or food supply”. BGI has issued a statement rejecting these claims.

“China is stealing your intimate data for evil purposes” is a popular genre in western journalism – see, for...