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Gallagher, Colleagues Call on Admin to Investigate Chinese Biotech Company, WuXi AppTec

February 12, 2024

 Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), alongside Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), sent a letter to the Departments of Treasury, Defense, and Commerce calling on them to investigate Chinese biotech company, WuXi AppTec, and its subsidiaries, citing WuXi AppTec’s alarming ties to the Chinese military (the People's Liberation Army or PLA), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the CCP’s human rights abuses.

 

As a result, the lawmakers request that the agencies consider adding WuXi AppTec and its subsidiaries to the Department of Defense’s Chinese Military Companies List (1260H list), the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List, and the Department of Treasury’s Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List.

 

The lawmakers write, "WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics are rapidly becoming a global pharmaceutical and research-services giant that threatens U.S. intellectual property and national security. Both companies have close ties to the CCP and have worked at its behest, in multiple instances."

 

Based on a carful review of open-source information, the lawmakers found that:

 

  • WuXi AppTec chairman has commended CCP branch work in the company and has called on Party branches and members to play an active role in the company.

 

  •  WuXi Biologics CEO has linked the company’s success to local CCP support and pledged to work with Party officials to help reduce PRC reliance on foreign technologies in the field of biomedicine

 

  • WuXi AppTec built and operates the PRC’s “State Key Laboratory of Drug Lead Compound Research", which carries out research to promote the Chinese economy and military build-up

 

  • WuXi AppTec has a “management committee” that is staffed by Chinese military personnel and other Party officials

 

  • WuXi AppTec has received investment from numerous PLA investment funds, including from organizations with a stated goal of investing in companies directly tied to military-civil fusion and military production

 

  • WuXi AppTec operates genetic testing centers established in coordination with the PLA. Genetic testing allows the CCP to identify and separate Uyghurs Muslims from other residents. This practice has been a key pillar of the CCP’s genocide in the region

 

In January, the lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban federal dollars from going to foreign adversary biotech companies, like WuXi AppTec and BGI.

 

Additionally, Chairman Gallagher and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi are currently leading a delegation of Select Committee in Boston, where the lawmakers will meet with biotech companies and experts.

 

Click HERE to read the letter.