Genomics is Washington’s latest China panic

A pair of Republican senators is concerned that the U.S. might have compromised its national security by indirectly doing business with genomics firms that have ties to China.

In a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Marco Rubio set their sights on WuXi Nextcode and BGI, two genomics outfits they call “entities connected to the Chinese government.” The senators want to know whether federal money made its way to WuXi and BGI through U.S. intermediaries, and whether the two firms got access to American genomic data.

This all comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China when it comes to trade and data security. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ordered PatientsLikeMe, a U.S. health tech startup, to ditch its largest investor over concerns that its China-based majority owner would get access to American health data.

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