The United States banned imports from three major Chinese genomics companies on Wednesday, citing alleged ties between the firms and forced labor involving Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China's Xinjiang region. BGI Genomics Co. Ltd., MGI Tech Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen BGI Technology Co. Ltd. were all added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.
The move was reported by Reuters, which said the United States cited alleged company work with the Xinjiang government to enable forced labor of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. The companies named by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are BGI Genomics Co. Ltd., MGI Tech Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen BGI Technology Co. Ltd., the last of which is also known as BGI Group, according to the U.S. government.
Beijing dismissed the accusations outright. Per the same Reuters account, Chinese officials rejected claims of forced labor and other abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, a position China has repeated amid years of mounting U.S. trade restrictions targeting the region.
What the Entity List Listing Actually Does
Being placed on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List is not a minor paperwork flag. The list identifies entities that use or facilitate forced labor of Uyghurs and other minorities, or that source material from Xinjiang, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Once a company lands on that list, goods tied to it are treated differently at the border than ordinary imports.
Under the underlying statute, U.S. Customs and Border Protection applies a rebuttable presumption that goods produced wholly or partly in Xinjiang, or by a listed entity, were made with forced labor and are therefore prohibited from entering the country under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. That presumption can be rebutted, but the burden falls on importers to prove otherwise. The law itself, Public Law 117-78, directs CBP to treat Xinjiang-origin goods this way unless statutory exceptions apply.
BGI's Global Footprint and Its Response
BGI sells DNA-sequencing machines and operates laboratories that process genetic data for academic researchers and drug companies around the world, according to The New York Times. That global reach is part of what makes the company's inclusion on the list notable beyond China's borders — its equipment and services touch research labs well outside Chinese jurisdiction.
The company pushed back on the government's characterization. BGI said its work is performed strictly for civilian and scientific purposes, and it denied posing any risk to U.S. national security or collecting Americans' genetic information, the Times reported.
Part of a Rapidly Growing Blacklist
Wednesday's additions build on a list that has already grown sharply this year. In July, the Department of Homeland Security added 43 entities to the UFLPA Entity List, bringing the consolidated total to 187 entities, according to a summary from KPMG. DHS described that July expansion as a 30% increase in the number of listed entities, calling it the single largest-ever expansion of the list, per International Trade Today. That July update was itself the first since January 2025, the trade publication noted, and the enlarged list took effect for customs enforcement purposes on August 3, when CBP began barring goods produced by the newly added entities from entering the country.
The scale of enforcement under the broader law is already significant. CBP has said it denied entry to more than 24,300 shipments valued at nearly $1 billion since the UFLPA took effect, International Trade Today reported. The law itself was signed on December 23, 2021, and implemented on June 21, 2022, establishing the rebuttable presumption now applied to Xinjiang-linked goods, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Not BGI's First Brush With U.S. Restrictions
This is not the first time U.S. regulators have targeted BGI-affiliated entities. In March 2023, the Bureau of Industry and Security added three other BGI Group affiliates — BGI Research, BGI Tech Solutions (Hongkong) Co., Ltd. and Forensic Genomics International — to the separate Entity List maintained under export control law, according to law firm Ropes & Gray. That designation required U.S. and non-U.S. parties to obtain advance authorization from the Bureau of Industry and Security before exporting, transferring or disclosing items subject to export regulations to those entities.
Earlier still, in July 2020, the bureau designated two other BGI affiliates, Xinjiang Silk Road BGI and Beijing Liuhe BGI, over their alleged support for human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, Ropes & Gray noted. Wednesday's action adds a third wave of restrictions touching the BGI corporate family, this time aimed squarely at import eligibility rather than export licensing.
