A Blood-Smuggling Scandal Reveals China’s Genetic Security Anxiety |
This week, Chinese customs announced they had busted a blood-smuggling ring. The scale of the gang’s activities is shocking – the authorities revealed that they had handled the blood of over 100,000 pregnant women from the majority of the country’s provinces. If we assume one baby per woman, that’s roughly equivalent to 1 percent of all births in the country in 2024.
While the facts of the case reveal the enduring demand for banned medical services, the government’s response highlights the authorities’ heightened concern that foreign entities may be working to undermine China’s biosecurity – and perhaps even develop racially specific bioweapons.
Reportedly, the gang used social media to explicitly advertise “risk-free” genetic screening and fetal sex identification. The latter service is banned in China – begging the question as to why social media sites allowed such ads to proliferate in the first place. After the blood was sent to the gang, the blood-filled test tubes would be taped to the abdomen or inner thighs........