Despite Western intelligence agencies’ fears about the authoritarian regime amassing health data, researchers from China are to be allowed access to half a million United Kingdom General Practitioners (GP) records.
Preparations are under way to transfer the records to UK Biobank, a research hub that holds detailed medical information donated by 500,000 volunteers.
One of the world’s largest troves of health data, the facility makes its information available to universities, scientific institutes, and private companies. A Guardian analysis shows one in five successful applications for access come from China.
For the past year, health officials had been assessing whether extra safeguards were needed for patient records when added to the genomes, tissue samples, and questionnaire responses held by UK Biobank. Personal details such as names and dates of birth are stripped from UK Biobank data before it is shared, but experts say that in some cases, individuals can still be identified.
MI5, the UK Security Service, has warned that Chinese organisations and individuals granted access to UK data can be ordered by Chinese intelligence agencies “to carry out work on their behalf”.
But UK Biobank said that the (National Health Services) NHS unit responsible for health data had in recent weeks cleared it to grant Chinese researchers access to GP records.
As Keir Starmer’s ministers’ court Beijing is in search of economic growth, the decision avoids crossing a rising superpower that has made biotech prowess a priority. UK-China relations already face tests over the fate of a Chinese-owned steel plant in Scunthorpe and plans for new rules on foreign interference campaigns.
“Security and privacy considerations are always taken into account when UK health data is used to drive forward our understanding of diseases and advance scientific research,” a government spokesperson said. Health data was “only shared with legitimate researchers”, they added.
The Labour Members of the Parliament, Chi Onwurah, who chairs parliament’s science and technology committee, said: “UK Biobank is an enormous success and global medical research is all the better for it.
She added that “We need a government-wide strategy that gives people confidence that they have control of their data, that their data is only ever shared securely and responsibly, and that reflects the realities of geopolitics and the potential for bad actors to use our data for ill.”
Approving access to patient records
Out of 1,375 successful applications for access to UK Biobank data, 265 came from China, or almost 20%, second only to the US, according to a Guardian analysis of its published records.
Chinese scientists have used UK Biobank data to understand the effects of air pollution and to spot biological markers that could predict dementia.
Last year, UK Biobank approved access for a research project on ageing by a unit of the Chinese genetics company BGI. The US, by contrast, has blacklisted BGI subsidiaries, barring Americans from exporting to them.
Joe Biden’s government justified the restrictions in 2023, saying it had information indicating that BGI units’ “collection and analysis of genetic data poses a significant risk of contributing to monitoring and surveillance by the government of China, which has been utilised in the repression of ethnic minorities in China”. It also claimed, “the actions of these entities concerning the collection and analysis of genetic data present a significant risk of diversion to China’s military programs.”
