UAE Group 42: US-sanctioned Chinese Firm Continues Work with Abu Dhabi

In May, when Las Vegas was running short on coronavirus testing kits at one of Nevada’s largest mass Covid-19 detection facilities, UAE came to its rescue. The Emirates filled in for the failure of the federal government with its donation. However, it is now that the US government issued a warning claiming that the kits came from Group 42 spy firm that offer UAE spy Covid tests and must not be used.

As coronavirus was gripping global economy in its clasps, United Arab Emirates was busy planning to capitalize of the pandemic too — via mass surveillance — instead of fighting it. About 200,000 UAE spy Covid tests kits were supplied in the name of donation to Nevada when one of the facilities in the State was running short. When the powerful Gulf nation’s ally needed help with Covid-19 testing kits, it exploited the vulnerability and violated it on multiple levels; ethics, law, and human rights. Instead of supplying proper testing kits, the offer was made under the collaboration of BGI Group and Group 42 — a Chinese genome sequencing firm and an Emirati artificial intelligence and cloud-computing company with an infamous, shady past.

After following the hefty donations made by UAE, US intelligence agency and security personnel in mid-October issued a hushed warning to the state of Nevada, to not use the UAE spy Covid tests kits.

The failure of the US federal government in supplying enough Covid-19 testing kits paved way for the UAE to donate 200,000 kits and win over Nevada. However, the reality turned out slightly different when it was discovered of late that the kits donated by the UAE, was birthed by the collaboration of a shady Group 42 with China’s largest genetic sequencing firm, BGI Group.

US intelligence agencies have claimed that foreign superpowers like China are capable of exploiting people’s test samples. Even though the claims are not yet proven by evidence, it is said that a patient’s medical history, genetic traits, illnesses, can be withdrawn in the name of ‘testing’ them for coronavirus.

Authorities claim that the China-made UAE spy Covid tests kits were actually meant to exploit ‘patient’s privacy’.

While an infectious disease specialist at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Medina-Garcia, applauded the donation claiming, “I think we wouldn’t be where we are if we didn’t have those partners helping everybody out, when you’re not able to provide a service to the community because you don’t have a nasal swab, it doesn’t matter if you have the best of the infrastructure in place. You can’t move forward.” The US government on the other hand, believed otherwise of the donation and issued a warning based on the intentions of the rapid-covid testing system supplied by UAE’ Group 42 — a firm with a history of being accused for supporting state surveillance. The flooding public demand for getting tested was met, but with compromised security and privacy.

As part of the warning issued by Steve Sisolak, the State Department and Homeland Security, Nevada government office directed a Nevada hospital to quit the use of the 250,000 test kits, as the officials had rejected an offered laboratory deal.

The US and China have been long-tied in a trade war, in which the two have harmed each other’s economies by ending trade or raising sanctions, etc.

However, in the case of UAE spy Covid tests, Beijing wasn’t the only one to carry a shadowy past, but the Emirati firm named in the collaboration — Group 42, aka, G42 — too did. The firm was first named in 2019 for the development of an instant messaging and VoIP application called ToTok, which was later found out to be a spying tool for the UAE government to lead state surveillance program.

With a past of suppressing freedom of speech of dissidents, human rights advocates, journalists, activists, etc., using methods like hacking and surveillance, the fact that the UAE spy Covid tests were donated to Nevada with the intention of espionage appears quite believable. Will the US stand against its ally and probe into the Group 42 spy Covid test kits supplied to the state of Nevada or quietly brush the matter under the carpet?