This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
American pharmaceutical companies are carrying out drug trials in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, where the United States says a genocide of the Uyghur population is taking place, U.S. lawmakers say.
In a letter to the Federal Drug Administration, the two top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party requested an explanation of the practice, which they said is recorded in “hundreds” of entries on the FDA website “clinicaltrials.gov.”
The letter does not name any individual companies, but requests information from the FDA about how it approves such trials.
In the letter, Rep. John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, questioned “the ethics of conducting these trials in Xinjiang,” where they said Chinese officials “force ethnic minorities … to participate in gruesome medical procedures, which likely overlap with FDA-approved research.”
Given that China does not allow independent evaluators to examine facilities in Xinjiang for rights violations, they added, there was reason to query if Uyghurs were being forced to undergo medical testing.
“As we know, there is simply no ability for firms to conduct due diligence to ensure that clinical trials done in [Xinjiang] are voluntary,” they wrote. “Given this, we believe that U.S. biopharmaceutical entities could be unintentionally profiting from the data derived from clinical trials during which the CCP forced victim patients to participate.”
The involvement of China’s People’s Liberation Army, they added, also raised “serious concerns” that the intellectual property of U.S.-based companies had been compromised and “co-opted” by Chinese firms.
In a list of questions for the FDA, the lawmakers also asked if the regulator has ever reviewed trials undertaken in Xinjiang or inspected facilities in the region. They also requested the FDA’s internal rules to ensure “ethical and safety standards” are observed in foreign trials.
‘Disturbing reality’
A spokesperson for the FDA declined to comment directly on the claims and told Radio Free Asia only that the regulator had “received the letter and will respond directly to the Members of Congress.”
In 2021, the U.S. government declared that a genocide was taking place against the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority in China, after years of mounting evidence about mass internment camps, torture, forced labor and forced sterilization taking place in Xinjiang.
China’s government denies any torture or sterilization is taking place and says internment camps have mostly been closed. Chinese officials also deny that forced labor is taking place, insisting that voluntary “vocational training” programs in Xinjiang are being misunderstood.
But a growing focus on the plight of the Uyghurs in recent years – especially in Congress since the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party was established in January 2022 – has left many in Washington doubting the denials made by Beijing.
U.S. lawmakers have accused American companies of unwittingly financing the genocide, while automakers importing cars into America have admitted some components used were made with slave labor.
Even precious metals have not been untouched, with a report last year accusing U.S. brands of links to gold being mined through slavery.
Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs, said that the lawmakers’ letter revealed a “disturbing reality” that U.S. drug companies were also being “inadvertently linked” to the genocide against the Uyghurs.
“Conducting clinical trials alongside the People’s Liberation Army, in a region where genocide and forced medical testing and procedures are reported to have taken place, warrants urgent attention,” Abbas told RFA, calling for the companies to end the practice.
“We must insist on transparency to ensure that our values and safety are not compromised in the pursuit of profit,” he said. “The world is watching, and history will hold accountable those who enabled these atrocities.”
