US Bars BGI Group Imports Over Forced Labor

The Trump administration is blocking imports from BGI Group, BGI Genomics and MGI Tech under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, alleging ties to forced labor in Xinjiang. China calls the move "political manipulation" and has vowed "necessary measures" ahead of an expected Xi-Trump meeting in Shenzhen.

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US Customs and Border Protection will detain goods from BGI Group, BGI Genomics and MGI Tech starting Thursday, cutting the leading Chinese genomic sequencing firms off from US import channels. The action widens the US-China tech rivalry into biotechnology, following Treasury's proposed limits on US investment in Chinese biotech, AI and supercomputing. Beijing's vow to take countermeasures raises the risk of retaliation against US life-science and diagnostics firms and strains the trade truce before the planned Shenzhen summit. US sequencing rivals such as Illumina could gain share in non-China markets, while Western labs that rely on low-cost MGI instruments and reagents face supply and compliance disruption. The impact on BGI is limited by its small US footprint, but the listing adds to its Pentagon Chinese military company designation and its reputational and financing risks.