Congressman Slams American Company For Selling DNA Collection Kits To China

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At a congressional hearing, Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th), Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), called on the United States and international community to immediately step up efforts to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide against the people of Tibet and hold its enablers to account, including and especially American company Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Chaired by Smith, the March 28th hearing included compelling testimony from Richard Gere - the renowned actor and Golden Globe winner who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet - as well as the Sikyong, or head, of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.

“All of us need to do a better job exposing and reversing - or at least mitigating - the ugly, hate-filled campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to erase an entire people - the people of Tibet,” said Smith, who has chaired over 85 congressional hearings and markups on China’s egregious human rights abuses.

“Biometric data - DNA and iris scans - of over a million Tibetans have been harvested and stored by the CCP,” said

Smith. “Blood samples were drawn even from children in kindergarten.”

“And you know what is even more shocking?” continued Smith.

“It is the role of an American company, Thermo Fisher Scientific in this genetic data collection and genetic surveillance program,” said Smith, who sent a bipartisan letter with his fellow CECC Co-Chairs to the company’s President and CEO Marc Casper in December 2022 asking him why DNA kits and DNA sequencer replacement parts were still being sold directly by his company to police in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) for use and abuse in collecting biometric data.

According to the Wall Street Journal , Thermo Fisher announced it would stop selling or servicing genetic sequencers in February 2019 “as consistent with Thermo Fisher’s values, ethics code and policies,” but a 2021 New York Times investigation revealed police were still purchasing their equipment.

In his testimony, Gere pointed to reports that found China’s police may have gathered between 920,000 to 1,200,000 DNA samples in the TAR over the past six years, including by taking blood from children as young as five without their parents’ consent.

“China’s surveillance no longer halts at the Tibetan border,” said Gere. “The CCPs techno-authoritarianism and fear tactics extend to Tibetan communities abroad. This oppression is being perpetrated behind a digital iron curtain to hide reality on the ground. The development of these systems of repression, reaching all the way around the world, reflects the lengths the CCP will go to dismantle the Tibetan civilization.”

The Sikyong testified that “to speed up assimilation, large-scale forced relocation of Tibetans from their traditional homeland to Chinese territories and within Tibet, mass transfer of Tibetan youths to China for labor and incentivized migration of Han Chinese into Tibet are being carried out. Moreover, Tibetan children across Tibet are not only being coerced into colonial boarding schools but transferred to areas across China on a massive scale.”

According to a 2021 report by Tibet Action International, 80 percent of children in the TAR are educated in a massive system of colonial boarding schools, separated from their families and culture as part of the CCP’s forced assimilation of ethnic and religious minority groups.

And a 2022 State Department report found the CCP also effectively placed Tibetan Buddhism under central government control and subjected Tibetan women to “coerced abortion or forced sterilization.”

Smith’s hearing - entitled “Preserving Tibet: Combating Cultural Erasure, Forced Assimilation and Transnational Repression” - also included expert testimony from Lhadon Tethong, Director of the Tibet Action Institute, and Tenzin Dorjee, Senior Research and Strategist at the Tibet Action Group.

“China is committing genocide in Tibet,” said Tethong, “and has been working for decades to change history, to distort and obscure the present situation on the ground so as to erase Tibet from the world stage, both in the past and in the present.”

“The US, and the West in general, has conceded so much ground to China in the last three decades and moved the equilibrium so far toward Beijing’s baseline,” said Dorjee. “It is time to liberate ourselves from the tragically misguided notion that sweeping human rights under the rug would somehow make China more likely to cooperate on issues of geopolitical interest.”

Honored: Continued From Page 1

School Secretary Robin Linke recently learned that she has been awarded the Ocean County Educational Support Professional (ESP) from the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA).

McAuliffe Principal Debra Phillips said Linke “will be featured with other winners across the state in the April edition of the NJEA magazine.”

The school district also received some good news about another staff member Jean Ciner, a school counselor from Jackson Memorial High School and “this year’s Counselor of the Year for Ocean County.”

Dana Karas, who serves as the Professional Recognition Chair of NJ School Counselor Association (NJSCA), contacted the administration to let them know about Ciner.

“NJSCA honored school counselors from the different counties within the State of New Jersey at the annual Counselor of the County Awards Program. School counselors are nominated by their colleagues and are selected by their own county’s School Counselor Associations for this award,” Karas said.

She explained that the award honors the professionals who devote their careers to serving as advocates – and often lifesavers

– for the nation’s students.

Karas said “candidates are selected for the Counselor of the County Award at their county-level school counselor associations. They are selected because of their ability to deliver an effective school counseling program which focuses on academic development, career counseling, and personal/ social support.”

“They further distinguish themselves by proving to be leaders of systemic change, advocates for students, and collaborative professionals who seek the success of the ‘whole’ student in school and in life. For more specific information about the NJSCA, visit: njsca.org

Meals On Wheels Program Recognized

By Bob Vosseller JACKSON –

Mayor

Michael Reina

honored the Meals on Wheels of Ocean County program with a proclamation during a recent Township Council meeting.

The mayor read the proclamation noting the history of the program dating back to March of 1972 under President Richard Nixon that amended the “older Americans Act of 1965 to include a national nutrition program for individuals 60 years old and older.”

“For over five decades this landmark law has helped community-based organizations like Meals on Wheels and is still the only federal program designed specifically to meet the nutritional and social needs of older adults,” the mayor said in his proclamation.

The program combats malnutrition and social isolation, enable independence and improve health for years to come. He noted such programs in Ocean County have served communities for 48 years.

The mayor added, “employees from Meals on Wheels of Ocean County are the backbone of the program and not only deliver delicious meals to seniors and individuals with disabilities who are at significant risk of hunger and isolation but also show caring and concern to their welfare.”

He said their helps prevent unnecessary falls, hospitalizations, loneliness and premature institutionalizations “and deserves recognition in the central services they have provided especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, inclement weather and other emergencies.”

The proclamation also noted that the senior population in Ocean County is “increasing substantially and actions are needed to support Meals on Wheels in Ocean County from federal and state and local funding. Donations and raising awareness to ensure these vital services can continue to be delivered for years to come,” the mayor added.

Volunteers Have Cats Available For Adoption

JACKSON – Calling All Cats is a cat rescue group made up of volunteers, some of whom work at a spay and neuter clinic. People would drop off unwanted cats. As a group, they save the babies that are left alone, the countless mothers that have had numerous litters and those that are losing or have lost their home.

Sweet Coco came into the rescue very pregnant. She had all of her babies and they went off to their forever homes so now it’s her turn! She’s super sweet and loves to be pet. She doesn’t mind other cats and toler- ates dogs. She is spayed, up to date on all medical and microchipped.

To help humanely lower the feline population, they spay and neuter feral cats and then find homes for the friendly adults and the offspring that have been born. The rescue works extremely hard to find the best homes for cats of all shapes, sizes, colors and ages. While these cats wait, they are cared for in safe, loving, and nurturing foster homes

To start the application process, visit Calling All Cats on Facebook and Petfinder. com.

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