Three Chinese companies added to Uyghur forced labor list

By Mary McCue Bell - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 28, 2026

The Department of Homeland Security has added three major Chinese genomics companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.

BGI Group, BGI Genomics and MGI Tech are on the list, the department said in a Wednesday notice set to be published Thursday.

Goods from the companies are now presumed to be made with forced labor and barred from entering the U.S. unless importers can prove otherwise.

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The list now includes 190 entities.

The U.S. and human rights groups accuse China of running internment camps in Xinjiang, and Beijing denies the allegations.

A subset of the UFLPA Entity List targets entities that work with the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or members of persecuted groups, such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, out of the region.

The three companies were added over genetic testing and, in two cases, sourcing genetic material from Xinjiang, according to the notice from the department, which chairs a federal forced labor task force.

The government said it has reason to believe BGI Group and BGI Genomics conduct genetic testing in Xinjiang alongside the regional government, and that MGI supplied testing capacity to the Xinjiang government.

Such testing is used to facilitate the recruitment and transfer of Uyghurs and other minorities for forced labor, according to the notice.

BGI Group is BGI Genomics’ controlling shareholder, and MGI shares the same ultimate controlling shareholder as BGI Group.

In 2020, the Commerce Department blacklisted two BGI units over allegations that they conducted genetic analyses tied to Xinjiang. The Pentagon also previously added BGI Genomics to its list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S.