China ‘could use NHS data to develop targeted bioweapon'
China could use NHS data to develop a targeted bioweapon against the West, a former deputy head of MI6 has warned.
Nigel Inkster said there is a 'real worry' of what Beijing could do with a large health dataset.
It comes as UK Biobank, a research hub, is preparing to transfer data from half a million GP records to its central database, where it will be available to access by Chinese researchers.
Mr Inkster told the BBC Radio 4 Today podcast: 'I think the real worry is what they might be able to do with the collectivity of the data set.'
Asked for examples, he said: 'Well, extreme scenarios, which I think are still scientifically fairly far fetched, would be developing a pathogen that would attack one population rather than another.
'Not a pathogen that necessarily attacks one ethnic group rather than another, because at the end of the day ethnicity, the determinant nation of ethnicity is not primarily genetic anyway, but develop a pathogen against which we are known not to have any defences'.
A spokesman from UK Biobank told the Guardian earlier this week that China had passed the audit process for sharing data internationally, meaning that researchers from the country can apply to access the records.
Of the 1,375 successful applications for access to UK Biobank data, one in five (265) came from China, second only to the US, according to analysis of the published records.
MI5 previously warned that Chinese organisations and individuals granted access to UK data could be ordered by Chinese intelligence agencies to carry out work on their behalf.
Database stripped of personal details
Personal details, such as names and dates of birth, are stripped from the database before it is shared.
But Mr Inkster warned that the UK 'would be in trouble' if it was to agree a trade deal with the US at the expense of China.
It comes after White House officials told The Telegraph that they believe a trade deal with the UK could be agreed 'within three weeks'.
The former deputy head of MI6 said: 'If it were the case that we had such a deal, I think it would come with strings, and one of those strings would be an expectation that the UK would get with the programme when it came to China.
'We've seen a precursor of this with the Huawei 5G saga, which the Americans said, you cannot use a Chinese company to build the 5G. What needs to happen is that the Government needs to look much more carefully at what constitutes critical national infrastructure, and consider what the risks are in any given sector.
'And one of the areas here that worries me quite a lot is the whole pharmaceutical sector, because China is a critical supplier of many pharmaceutical products. Without them, we would be in trouble.'
Asked if the Chinese government could switch off the supply of vital pharmaceuticals in a future dispute, Mr Inkster said: 'It would be an incredibly powerful lever. China has, I think, a fairly clear track record of readiness to use economic coercion.'
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