Tibetan Rights Groups condemn Thermo Fisher Scientific for supplying DNA kits to CCP: Report

Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], February 5 (ANI): Tibetan rights groups Free Tibet Organisation, Students for Free Tibet (SFT) and International Tibet Network (ITN) have launched a week of global action against Thermo Fisher Scientific for supplying DNA kits to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Phayul reported. They condemned the US-based company for selling DNA kits and their continuous technical assistance to the Chinese police in Tibet.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is a Massachusetts-based company which supplies DNA kits to the Chinese Communist Party, allowing forced collection of samples and biometric surveillance across Tibet, according to Phayul. In a post on their social media handle, the rights group said that a petition to hold the company accountable for their complicity in the CCP’s human rights abuses is underway.

The campaign condemned the company for keeping profit before people by selling DNA kits and their continuous technical assistance to the Chinese police forces in Tibet. The campaign #HandsOffTibetansDNA has called on Thermo Fisher Scientific’s CEO Marc Casper and the company’s Vice President and CEO of Thermo Fisher, Sandy Pound to immediately stop the supply of DNA kits to China, as per the Phayul report.

Free Tibet Organisation, Tibetan Community in Britain went to Thermo Fisher UK headquarters to speak with its employees to raise awareness about the company’s “unethical profiteering” over the Tibetan’s illegal mass DNA, as per the news report. The London-based rights group also visited the Chinese embassy and university science campuses to raise awareness regarding their campaign.

Many Tibetan student activists and campaigners continue their protest on the streets to educate the employees about the company’s participation in mass DNA collection using their DNA kits supplied to the Chinese authorities in Tibet, according to Phayul. Youth activists around the world on their social media handles posted pictures of their hands imprinted with the hashtag HandOffTibetanDNA to show their support for the campaign.

As part of a global week of action campaign at McLeod square in Dharamshala on Wednesday, Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) organised a petition drive to ask Thermo Fisher to stop their supply of DNA kits to the Chinese government. Tenzin Yangzom, grassroots director at Students for Free Tibet, said Tibet is under “complete lockdown and one of the most repressed places in the world,” according to Phayul.

“Tibet is already under complete lockdown, a total police state and one of the most repressed places in the world. The news about Thermo Fisher didn’t come as a surprise to us as Tibet activists; further repression should be alarming to the global community,” Phayul quoted Tenzin Yangzom as saying.