China has access to sensitive US healthcare data, including DNA: Intel agency

Amid tensions between Washington and Beijing, the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) informed that Chinese companies have gained access to US healthcare data by partnering with hospitals, universities and other research organisations in America. A recent report by the agency revealed that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has for years been able to gain access the US healthcare data, including genomic data, through a variety of channels, both legal and illegals. The NCSC also asserted that PRC’s acquisition of US healthcare data is helping to “fuel China’s Artificial Intelligence and precision medicine industries”. 

In a fact sheet, the NCSC wrote, “For years, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has collected large healthcare data sets from the US and nations around the globe, through both legal and illegal means, for purposes only it can control. The PRC's collection of healthcare data from America poses equally serious risks, not only to the privacy of Americans but also to the economic and national security of the US”. 

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‘Privacy, national security risks’ 

The agency said that China’s access to US healthcare and genomic data poses serious privacy and national security risks to the US. They even noted that the efforts had increased during COVID-19 pandemic, with Chinese biotech group BGI offering coronavirus testing kits to the majority of countries and establishing 18 testing labs over the past six months alone, allegedly as part of an effort to obtain health data. The agency added that the US health data was an attractive target for the Chinese government due to the diversity of the population and because of the nation’s comparably lax safeguards and personal data. 

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“The PRC understands the collection and analysis of large genomic data sets from diverse populations helps foster new medical discoveries and cures that can have substantial commercial value and advance its Artificial Intelligence and precision medicine industries,” NCSC wrote. 

Further, the counterintelligence agency said that China’s access to US health and genomic data poses long term economic challenges for the United States. The officials also warned that the Chinese government was using the health data to outpace the US biotech industry, which posed the threat of the US being "left more dependent on Chinese innovation and drug development for its cures" and hurting the US job market. They expressed concerns on Chinese hackers targeting US health data and research and stated that the PRC views bulk personal data, including healthcare and genomic data, as a "strategic commodity" to be collected and used for its "economic and national security priorities”. 

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