I was having mild labor contractions in a hospital in February when I got a tip that Chinese researchers were mapping the faces of Uighurs using DNA samples. I said: Wait, what? nyti.ms/34Ni9Hq
I gave birth 3 days later and tried to spend my maternity leave reading up on DNA phenotyping – basically, the police can use blood samples to recreate composite sketches. So far, they haven’t been v useful but have resulted in some arrests in the U.S.
The technology is only getting better though. I read papers from Chinese scientists that analyzed the chins and ears of Uighurs. Beyond the Uighurs, the Chinese researchers also studied Tibetans and Han Chinese. Pro-tip: if you’re on maternity leave, don’t think about working!
I was sleep-deprived and couldn’t really string a sentence together. I needed help, from someone who was well-versed in surveillance technologies. Enter @paulmozur.
@paulmozur and I wanted to focus on an April paper published by Springer that used the samples of 612 Uighurs, nearly all men, from a remote town in Xinjiang called Tumxuk. It was the site of two re-education camps. (Thanks to @shawnzhang for the tip.)
We wanted to find out whether the Uighurs there gave any consent. When I got back from maternity leave, @paulmozur and I started planning a trip to Tumxuk.
We arrived in Tumxuk and was picked up at the airport by a cop. Local officials swept in and said the water pipe in the only hotel that was open to foreigners burst that morning! So, we wouldn’t be able to stay the night. Paul and I burst out laughing. “What a coincidence! 好巧!”
From then on, we couldn’t shake them off. Curiously, there were almost no residents on the streets. We pressed for an interview with an official and tried to head to a re-education camp. Finally, they caved and agreed to the interview.
@paulmozur and I went back to the propaganda department’s office, where several cops burst in and said: “Somebody has reported a foreigner taking photos here.”
The cops deleted all the photos and videos from our phones. And asked for the passwords to our social media accounts. We pushed back and they said okay.
Later that night, I interviewed the head of the health commission in Tumxuk and asked whether police were collecting the DNA samples of Uighurs. He said he hadn’t heard of such a thing. But our minder was furious at me, saying I was shameless for asking such a question.
He started shouting: “Do you think America can do these free health checks? Only the Communist Party can do it!” They put me on a plane immediately back to Urumqi, and then back to Beijing.
After we contacted Springer, they said they would strengthen its guidelines on papers involving vulnerable groups of people and that it would add notes of concern to previously published papers.
That is significant because it shows that they have recognized that there are red flags and could pave the way for retractions. That is a big deal in the academic world.
So much thanks to @CRTejada, our editing spirit guide, who’s steered our DNA coverage. A “WE NEED TO PUSH THE STORY OUT! MY BABY IS COMING!” is a deadline like no other. Here's the first story: nytimes.com/2019/02/21/bus…
If you know of any more problematic papers like these, please get in touch at slwee@nytimes.com Here’s the story again and thank you for reading: nytimes.com/2019/12/03/bus…
