States Move to Protect Americans’ DNA From China

As concerns grow about biotech advancements that would allow for Americans’ DNA to be weaponized, many states are enacting protection laws.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

China has aggressively collected Americans’ genetic information for years, and coupled with biotechnology advances, national security concerns have grown. Multiple states are now taking action to protect DNA data.

“You can actually take someone’s DNA, take their medical profile, and you can target a biological weapon that will kill that person or take them off the battlefield or make them inoperable,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said during the 2022 Aspen Security Forum.

“There are now weapons under development, and developed, that are designed to target specific people.”

One fear is that the DNA gathered by consumer genetic testing companies routinely used by Americans to trace ancestry or find relatives could fall into the wrong hands. In 2023, a hacker exposed the genetic data of about 7 million users of 23andMe.

When the company announced on March 23 that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, some privacy experts advised consumers to delete their data—a service that the company says it has always offered consumers.

“What we’re witnessing with 23andMe is a stark wakeup call for data privacy,” said Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN. “Genetic data isn’t just a bit of personal information—it is a blueprint of your entire biological profile. When a company goes under, this personal data is an asset to be sold with potentially far-reaching consequences.”

And while more Americans use consumer DNA testing services, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been unable to advance bills to prevent foreign adversaries from collecting genetic information from U.S. citizens, despite bipartisan support.

Most of the legislation to protect DNA is occurring at the state level.

As of November 2024, 13 states have enacted laws regulating direct-to-consumer genetic testing and ensuring that consumers have the power to protect their DNA. They are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.

At least 11 states—Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, Tennessee, Kansas, Montana, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Rhode Island—introduced bills this spring to block China and other adversaries from gaining access to genetic data through sequencing equipment and software and to forbid DNA information from being stored overseas.

As of April 1, Utah’s bill failed, while Tennessee passed its measure into law.

Montana state Sen. Daniel Zolnikov told The Epoch Times that states needed to take the lead to protect DNA privacy from foreign adversaries such as China because Congress has failed to keep up with the threats.

A saliva collection kit for DNA testing is displayed in Washington on Dec. 19, 2018. Between 2015 and 2018, sales of DNA test kits boomed in the United States and allowed websites to build a critical mass of DNA profiles. Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images

“Their technology laws are decades outdated. If they’re not going to do it and they’re just going to give speeches and not actually legislate, I guess we'll do it,” the Montana Republican said.

During the current state legislative session, Zolnikov is sponsoring the Montana Genomic Security Act, which builds on a 2023 genetic privacy bill that he sponsored and which was signed into law.

The privacy law prohibits genetic testing services from sharing consumer DNA information without consent and gives people the right to request the destruction of their genetic data and biological samples.

This year’s Genomic Security Act would “oppose the collection and analysis of genetic information for military and surveillance purposes by the People’s Republic of China.”

The bill blocks medical or research facilities in Montana from using genetic sequencers or software produced in or by a foreign adversary, a state-owned enterprise of a foreign adversary, a company within a foreign adversary, or an owned or controlled subsidiary or affiliate of a company domiciled within a foreign adversary.

Beijing has a military-civil fusion mandate that requires all Chinese companies to share technology and information with the communist nation’s military and intelligence agencies.

The bill also provides money to businesses to replace foreign equipment and prevents the storage of Montanans’ genetic data outside the United States without approval from the individual.

Violators would face a $10,000 fine for each offense. Victims would be allowed damages of not less than $5,000 for each unauthorized use of the person’s genomic information.

National Security Issues

Emma Waters, Heritage Foundation biotechnology analyst, warned that China’s potential collection of Americans’ DNA and health care information poses a significant national security risk.

“In the last decade alone, Chinese officials and military leaders have prioritized advancements in biotechnology as the future of warfare,” she told The Epoch Times.

“Chinese publications have discussed ‘ethnic genetic attacks’ that target a specific population as one avenue they are interested in pursuing.”

A technician places an array containing DNA information in a scanner at GeseDNA Technology in Beijing on Aug. 22, 2018. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

Waters said the U.S. government needs to ensure that health care records and genetic information aren’t bought or included in data-sharing agreements with companies tied to adversaries such as China.

Applications for biotechnology contracts in the United States that rely on federal funding should be scrutinized to assess potential national security risks and any connection with foreign adversaries, she said.

Although Congress is yet to pass a DNA-related bill, the bipartisan BIOSECURE Act was reintroduced in January, the House version of the Prohibiting Foreign Access to American Genetic Information Act of 2024.

The BIOSECURE Act would restrict federally funded medical providers from using foreign adversary biotech companies of concern, including BGI Group, formerly known as Beijing Genomics Institute, and its subsidiaries, MGI and Complete Genomics, along with another People’s Liberation Army-affiliated firm called WuXi Apptec.

The bill targets BGI, which in 2021 was blacklisted by the Pentagon as a Chinese military company. Five company affiliates also have been sanctioned by the Commerce Department, which accused at least two of them of improperly using genetic information against ethnic minorities in China.

“Beijing Genomics Institute collects genetic data of Americans [and] uses it for research with the Chinese military,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said when announcing the legislation.

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will undoubtedly use the genetic data collected by BGI to further its malign aggression, potentially even to develop a bioweapon used to target the American people,” he said.

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) reintroduced the federal Genomic Data Protection Act at the beginning of March—it’s the same bill that was introduced last year but failed to pass.

The bill would allow U.S. consumers using at-home consumer DNA tests to delete their genomic data and request the destruction of their biological samples.

(Left) Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) speaks to reporters following the weekly Republican Senate policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on March 11, 2025. (Right) Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 13, 2025. Cassidy and Peters reintroduced the Genomic Data Protection Act, which would allow Americans using at-home consumer DNA tests to delete their genomic data and request the destruction of their biological samples. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Waters said that on top of legislation, consumer genetic testing companies or medical entities collecting DNA need to provide users with straightforward informed consent agreements and commit to top-notch cybersecurity.

“DNA is the blueprint of a person’s life,” she said. “It is the map of their health, their risk for developing certain diseases or conditions, and their overall genetic makeup. All these things can, and will, be exploited in future biotechnology warfare either through targeted bioweapon research or, at a minimum, the ability to assess Americans’ overall health and longevity.”

Weird Science

Beijing has launched an aggressive multibillion-dollar investment in biotechnology and wants to build the largest genetic database on the planet, which includes DNA from Americans, according to Gallagher.

A research paper that made headlines in 2023 noted that Chinese military scientists used a CRISPR gene-editing tool to insert a gene from the microscopic water bear, a tiny eight-legged animal, into human embryonic stem cells.

The water bear, or tardigrade, can withstand radiation levels that no other creature on Earth can. They can survive subzero temperatures and boiling water. They even survived the vacuum of space after being sent up on a rocket.

The military researchers reported that the human stem cell had a significantly increased resistance to radiation, with the ultimate goal of creating a “super soldier” capable of surviving nuclear fallout.

Waters is concerned that another field of study called in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) could also be used to produce super soldiers.

IVG allows researchers to modify a person’s DNA genetically—either using their blood, saliva, or skin/hair follicles—into viable egg or sperm that can be used via IVF to create an unlimited supply of embryos, she said.

While no research lab has successfully achieved this with human DNA, in 2016 researchers in China successfully created mouse embryos using DNA from mouse tails. The mice that they created went on to reproduce for multiple generations, Waters said.

“The implications of this for human reproduction, especially when paired with China’s advancements in CRISPR genetic editing technology, are massive,” she said.

Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers show off their fighting skills at a media event on the outskirts of Beijing on July 28, 2009. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images

CRISPR is an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, a revolutionary gene-editing technology that allows scientists to precisely modify DNA sequences, offering potential for treating diseases and improving crops. The technology can precisely target and edit specific sections of DNA at will. Scientists can enhance particular traits or remove undesirable ones.

“One major concern is that if the People’s Republic of China attains not only genomic data, but the DNA itself, there are few limits to what kind of targeted bioweapons or people could be created,” Waters said.

“In a scenario that seems fanciful, but is technically possible ... foreign adversaries could exploit American DNA via IVG and gene editing to create an endless supply of soldiers who look like a given demographic but are equipped with inhuman strength or other enhancements tailored to the weaknesses of a specific demographic.”

A report by U.S. intelligence made public in 2021 found that the CCP was engaged in the development of “brain-control weaponry” that incorporated gene-editing and brain-machine interfacing to make people more loyal to communist ideology.

In a 2020 opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, John Ratcliffe, former U.S. director of national intelligence who now heads the CIA, wrote: “U.S. intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities. There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power.”

In March 2024, the House’s CCP select committee held a hearing on the bioeconomy and national security.

Gallagher said the Chinese Communist Party has pumped $9 billion into biotechnology and genetic sciences.

He noted that Chinese genomics company BGI—which has ties to China’s military—offers a prenatal screening test to women worldwide, giving the regime access to genetic information on mothers and their children.

Chinese companies have gained access to DNA by partnering or contracting with U.S. hospitals, universities, and other research organizations. Part of the attraction is the low-cost services that BGI can offer in the United States because the Chinese regime subsidizes the company.

Others, such as the Chinese company WuXi AppTec, have sponsored events with China’s military, reportedly stolen U.S. intellectual property, and jointly operated genetic collection sites with China’s military, according to the select committee.

China has been accused of using its mass collection of DNA at home to surveil and abuse the rights of minority groups such as the Uyghurs. Beijing’s collection of health care data from the United States poses equally serious risks to the privacy of Americans and national security, according to the National Counterintelligence Security Center.

The entrance to an industrial area near a detention facility in Artux in Kizilsu, Xinjiang region, China, on July 19, 2023. The Chinese communist regime has been accused of using its mass collection of DNA at home to surveil and abuse the rights of minority groups such as the Uyghurs. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

Tara O'Toole, a senior fellow at In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm that supports U.S. intelligence agencies, said in testimony before the select committee in March 2024 that the CCP considers biotechnology critical to addressing economic, health, and food production challenges.

But she also said dominating the field offered a way “to surpass the power and influence of the United States.”

“The CCP has long recognized biotechnologies to be ‘critical strategic technologies’ and has been aggressively pursuing an ambitious and comprehensive strategy to dominate the global bioeconomy,” O’Toole said.

Misuse of Biotech

Combined with comments made by members of the Chinese military, China’s quest to dominate biotechnology is troubling to policy analysts and lawmakers alike.

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While China denies pursuing biological weapons, its military officers, including retired Gen. Zhang Shibo, have suggested that such weapons could be used for “ethnic genetic attacks.”

Twenty years ago, China signaled its willingness to use biological weapons.

In a 2005 English-language paper, director of the People’s Liberation Army’s Department of Medical Affairs and biotechnologist Xue-sen Yang argued that biological weapons “can cause destruction that is both more powerful and more civilized than that caused by conventional killing methods like gunpowder or nuclear weapons.”

“We believe that command of military biotechnology is a reasonable scientific presumption, not a scientific illusion. In the near future, when military biotechnology is highly developed, modern biotechnology will have a revolutionary influence on the organization of military power with its more direct effects on the main entity of war—human beings. Modern biotechnology offers an enormous potential military advantage,” the paper reads.

Technicians work in a lab at GeseDNA Technology in Beijing on Aug. 22, 2018. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

In 2021, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California released a report titled “Scientific Risk Assessment of Genetic Weapon Systems.”

The report noted that targeting a specific population with a biological weapon presents a significant technical challenge, especially against an ethnically diverse population such as that of the United States—but one that could be overcome with advances in artificial intelligence.

Like others, the study recommended protecting Americans’ DNA, noting that China has become increasingly guarded with its data. For example, in 2019, China restricted foreign access to Chinese genetic material and information.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center also released a report in 2021 that warned that biotechnology can be misused to create “virulent pathogens that can target our food supply or even the human population.”

Large genetic databases that allow people’s ancestry to be revealed can be misused for surveillance and societal repression, the report states.

A U.S. military blog post in February cautioned that drones could very well be the vehicle used to deliver a biological weapon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.