Pre-APEC US ban on Chinese genomic giant widens biotech decoupling

Beijing has vowed to defend its firms after Washington blocked imports from China’s leading genomics group, extending the two countries’ trade war into biotechnology weeks before their leaders are due to meet in Shenzhen. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday added three Shenzhen-based companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List, effectively barring their products from the United States. The additions are: BGI Group, a genomics company that built and manages the China National GeneBank; BGI Genomics, the group’s publicly traded gene-testing unit; and MGI Tech, a maker of gene sequencers and reagents controlled by the same ultimate shareholder as BGI Group. DHS said the three affiliated firms, which together form one of the world’s largest gene-sequencing and genetic-material collection enterprises, help the Xinjiang government build and operate its mass surveillance infrastructure. It said the system uses genetic data to monitor ethnic minorities and supports labor transfers and internment, often carried out under the guise of healthcare. Under the UFLPA, the companies’ goods are presumed to have been made with forced labor and cannot enter the US unless importers prove otherwise. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the move aimed to enforce US laws and protect American businesses from unfair competition. DHS did not make its evidence public. In June, the Pentagon expanded its 1260H list of Chinese military companies, adding drug developer WuXi AppTec and gene sequencing firm Novogene. BGI and MGI are also on the list, which puts them under the Biosecure Act, signed into law in December 2025, which bars such firms from US federal contracts and grants. While the Biosecure Act limits federal spending only, the UFLPA listing goes much farther. It takes effect on Thursday and covers all imports of the three companies’ gene sequencers, reagents and other products into the United States, not just sales to government agencies. “BGI is China’s state-controlled DNA collection company and a national security threat to the American people,” John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said Wednesday. “The CCP’s genocide of the Uyghurs is one of the Party’s many human rights abuses and BGI’s use of forced labor must never corrupt our markets,” he said. “This announcement is also a reminder that American pharmaceutical companies should stop doing clinical trials in Xinjiang, because of the significant concerns about ethics and data integrity of the data,” he said. “We firmly oppose all the allegations,” BGI Group said in a statement on Thursday. “BGI Group is not involved in any forced labor.” The company stressed that the listing would not materially affect its business. It added that its research, production and commercial partnerships in China and other countries and regions were proceeding in an orderly manner. The Chinese foreign and commerce ministries condemned the move on Thursday and vowed to protect Chinese firms. “There is no forced labor in China. The US keeps manipulating the issue of ‘human rights’ as a cover for unilateral protectionism and bullying,” said a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). “Its move runs counter to the consensus reached by the two heads of state and seriously undermines the stability of China-US economic and trade ties.” “The US has been spreading disinformation about Xinjiang and using so-called ‘forced labor’ as a false pretext to suppress Chinese enterprises. The so-called ‘forced labor’ is a huge lie propagated by anti-China forces to destabilize Xinjiang, smear China and curb its development,” said Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry. Asked whether the ban would affect the upcoming meeting between the Chinese and US presidents, Guo did not answer directly. He said China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese enterprises. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to hold talks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen on November 18-19. Before then, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in the city to lay the groundwork. Sequencer rivalry turns political When former US President Joe Biden signed the UFLPA into law in December 2021, it targeted labor-intensive products from Xinjiang such as cotton, tomatoes and polysilicon. Most of the Chinese entities added in the years that followed came from these industries. In August 2026, the list grew from 144 to 187 entities, a jump of about 30% in a single update. The new additions were still mainly aluminum, textile and agricultural processing firms. Gene sequencing, meanwhile, had already become a front in the trade war. On February 4, 2025, MOFCOM added US gene sequencer maker Illumina to its list of unreliable entities. A month later, it banned the company from exporting gene sequencers to China. This week’s US move hits BGI. Some Chinese commentators, however, see the latest US curbs as a new chapter in BGI’s patent fight with Illumina. In May 2022, a federal jury in Delaware ruled that Illumina had willfully infringed two DNA-sequencing patents held by Complete Genomics, a BGI Group subsidiary, and ordered it to pay $333.8 million in damages. Illumina and BGI reached a $325 million settlement in July 2022. They signed a cross-licensing deal that ended the dispute and halted further litigation. “Illumina lost in court, and it lost badly. It paid damages, lost its patents and saw its share price take a heavy hit,” says a Shandong-based columnist using the pen name “Chengzi Zhanggui.” The columnist writes that Illumina spent about $500,000 lobbying on the Biosecure Act in the first quarter of 2024, according to US congressional disclosures. That September, the House passed a version of the bill by 306 votes to 81, which named BGI, MGI and Complete Genomics as foreign adversary biotech companies. “What Illumina failed to win in court, it got from Congress. When that was not enough, DHS stepped in with an import ban,” he says. “In three moves, a Chinese sequencer maker that had started to compete on technology and price has been regulated out of the US market.” Citing a Huatai Securities report, the columnist notes that Illumina has long held about 70% of the global sequencer market, while MGI’s share is only 7% to 10%. He says it’s unfair that the market leader is using state power to shut out a challenger with a single-digit market share. The listing came less than a week after the US Treasury Department proposed adding biotechnology to its Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP), which already restricts American investment in Chinese chip and artificial intelligence (AI) firms. Comments on the October 22 proposal are due by December 7. On October 16, MOFCOM and the Ministry of Science and Technology proposed adding 40 technologies in AI, photovoltaics and biomedicine to China’s catalog of technologies prohibited or restricted from export. Exporters must register before shipping any of them, while a public consultation runs until November 15. Read: Beijing softens on EU curbs to avoid blame for Europe’s unrest Follow Jeff Pao on X at @jeffpao3