Reuters news agency has uncovered that a Chinese company connected to the military has been harvesting DNA from millions of unsuspecting pregnant women worldwide.

The report claims that the BGI Group has been harvesting “genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research” and claims China has been using the data to gain strategic economic advantages and to improve “population quality”.

The report also claims Chinese scientists used data harvested by BGI Group to trace genetic distinctions between Han Chinese (ethnic group native to China) and ethnic minorities, like the Uyghurs and Tibetans. The report suggests that Chinese scientists have sought to map how genetic variations in Uyghurs affected their reaction to different kinds of drugs, which is a deeply disturbing development given the ongoing cultural genocide that is taking place against the Uyghur population at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

The wilful refusal of the ruling political class in Ireland to challenge the Chinese government over its litany of human rights violations adds to the wrongs and persecutions taking place and emboldens those carrying them out.

It was disappointing to see the former Labour Party leader Ruairi Quinn refusing to criticise the Chinese government when interviewed last week. Instead, Mr Quinn paid tribute to the Chinese authorities and was quoted in The Irish Times, saying:

“I’m a dedicated European and a socialist, and in the Labour Party sense of that word, but I would be very slow to criticise other systems that have emerged, and that have emerged so successfully, as we have, and as the Chinese have, in the last 40 and 50 years, and I would have a great respect for how they have done that, mistakes and all, and I think they would have some respect for us. I would have no respect for anybody who would come into Ireland and start telling us how we should run our affairs.”

Watch report from Reuters here about China’s harvesting of data from pregnant women worldwide

The Dungiven mother granted permission by the High Court in Belfast to intervene in challenge to the new abortion law in Northern Ireland has said she’s appalled at the way she and her daughter have been treated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Northern Secretary Brandon Lewis, and the way they have gone about imposing abortion on the people of Northern Ireland.

Rosaleen McElhinney, whose daughter Cara Rose has Down syndrome voiced her upset and concern in The Irish News newspaper, where she talked about the discriminatory abortion law in Northern Ireland that permits abortion up to birth when an unborn baby is detected with Down syndrome or any other disability.

Ms McElhinney said: “It is bad enough to take action to allow others to engage in discriminatory and eugenic practices. It is something else for the British government to actually intervene on a devolved matter to take to themselves the right to commission discriminatory and eugenic practices because, very properly, the Northern Ireland health minister has refused to commission abortions on this basis.

“My daughter is shielded from the psychological scars of what the law says because she is too young to process their implications. But I know that at some point she will become aware and I am deeply concerned about the impact on the way she sees herself with respect to her own mental health. In this context, as a responsible mother, I can no longer sit back. I look forward to intervening in the upcoming case and I very much hope that the courts will strike down the 2021 Regulations. They have no place in Northern Ireland – or indeed anywhere else – in 2021.”

Rosaleen McElhinney deserves great credit and all our support for the bold and courageous way she is standing up for her daughter and for the rights of everyone with a disability born and unborn.

The court case is due to begin in October.