" Several of the researchers are associated with public security authorities in China, a fact that “voids any notion of free informed consent”, said Yves Moreau, a professor of engineering at the University of Leuven, in Belgium, who focuses on DNA analysis. Moreau first raised concerns about the papers with Hart, MGGM’s editor-in-chief, in March 2021.

One retracted paper studies the DNA of Tibetans in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, using blood samples collected from 120 individuals. The article stated that “all individuals provided written informed consent” and that work was approved by the Fudan University ethics committee.

But the retraction notice published on Monday stated that an ethical review “uncovered inconsistencies between the consent documentation and the research reported; the documentation was not sufficiently detailed to resolve the concerns raised”. "

Weird. So they had written consent forms for the blood samples, but the forms weren't detailed enough(?), and anyway you can't trust anyone associated with the Chinese gvmt? Is that what they're saying?

This seems like weird reactionary virtue signalling.

Tibet and Xinjiang are literally autonomous ethnic regions that are under local governments of Tibetans and Uighurs, respectively. No one has any concerns about the poor donating plasma or Canadians pushing euthanasia to the poor, but you're gonna just smear scientists because of Westoid propaganda?

Researchers used samples from populations deemed by experts and campaigners to be vulnerable to exploitation, including Uyghurs and Tibetans

By this logic, said genetics journal should retract all papers which used samples from black people in the United States and Europe.

So basically, you can't do research on Uyghurs and Tibetans because they're a vulnerable minority. 😅

Only han chinese studies are aceptable to the west.

China: exists

West: deeply concerned

The moment an empire turns on science is the moment it signals its irredeemable collapse.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Several of the researchers are associated with public security authorities in China, a fact that “voids any notion of free informed consent”, said Yves Moreau, a professor of engineering at the University of Leuven, in Belgium, who focuses on DNA analysis.

The article stated that “all individuals provided written informed consent” and that work was approved by the Fudan University ethics committee.

In Human Rights Watch’s most recent annual report, the campaign group said that the authorities “enforce severe restrictions on freedoms of religion, expression, movement, and assembly”.

It is considered to be a relatively easy forum for publication, which may have been a draw for Chinese researchers looking to publish in English-language journals, said David Curtis, a professor of genetics at University College London.

Curtis resigned from his position as editor-in-chief of Annals of Human Genetics, another Wiley journal, after the publisher vetoed a call to consider boycotting Chinese science because of ethical concerns, including those relating to DNA collection.

In 2023, Elsevier, a Dutch academic publisher, retracted an article based on blood and saliva samples from Uyghur and Kazakh people living in Xinjiang, a region in north-west China where there are also widespread reports of human rights abuses.

The original article contains 929 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!