China launches DNA database to track trafficked kids China's Ministry of Public Security is to use DNA testing to help police identify kidnapped children and return them to their homes. The database is meant to help deal with children who are kidnapped or abducted for money. Five groups will be tested according to the report: parents whose children have been confirmed …
What I find most shocking is I agree with a Chinese DNA database more than the UK DNA database based on the respective reasonings behind it.
Whether or not the Chinese d/b suffers from mission creep the same way UK schemes do remains to be seen, or am I being too cynical.
What a frightening thought that the UK could learn from the Chinese Govt w.r.t privacy :(
Anyone else notice how China's reasoning behind this (and the scope of the people whose DNA will be taken) appears to be way more rational than UK implementations? I mean, if you've got a child, and two sets of parents claiming to have borne the child, then a paternity test is realistic. If you are trying to match down those abducted kids to multiple parents over an extended period, then yeah, a database would appear to be appropriate. There's nothing to say that this would be any more secure than the nonsense they make of these things over here, or that they would delete records no longer required, but it still sounds more rational that wacqui jacqui's reasons.
Doesn't sound like a bad thing. It is being launched specifically to reunite children with their families. I can applaud that. It's entirely different to the reasoning our government are employing: That we are all guilty of something, they just don't know what it is yet. It would seem that even the Chinese, with their record on human rights, haven't gone that far.
1) Arrange child abduction culture to prosper in UK (white middle class ones prefered)
2) Wait for public outcry to 'think about the children'
3) Suggest a DNA database with email and phone tapping and digital CCTV (with audio) in every room might assist
4) Say - 'here's one I made earlier'
5) PROFIT!!
NB
( 6) Download the database to CDs and leave them on a train )
But it looks less like an uberdatabase and instead more like dna checking policy, China has a pertty big issue with girls being stolen due to a certain one child policy resulting in a lack of girls.
* parents whose children have been confirmed kidnapped
= So if a child is believed to have been stolen they can test against the records
* parents whose children are lost and ask for the test
= As before
* abducted children who have been rescued by the police
= to test against new parents who go onto the register
* children suspected of being abducted or cannot give a home address
= as before
* and homeless children.
= in the hope to find parents
Infact I applaud the database for trying to tackle a very sad situation.
Looks far more like an extension of a missing persons database, as such nothing like the police one we have or the desired national biometric register.
But this seems like a reasonable use of DNA testing technology. Except for the part about taking DNA samples of homeless people. That's your thin end of the wedge right there, if you're of a suspicious or cynical nature.. On the face of it, though, it seems a much more reasonable use of DNA sampling than anything uk.gov has proposed. These certainly are interesting times when the Chinese seem to be less draconian than the British.
I've lived in China for 10 years, and this is a serious problem that you don't even need to watch the evening news here to realize is a major deal (you see it on the streets everyday). There are many gangs who abduct children and either sell them into prostitution or lop off their limbs to increase the effectiveness of begging on the streets (you're more likely to give money to a maimed child than a relatively fit adult).
The Chinese don't always trust their leaders, but they do applaud strong-arm tactics, as cutting through red tape is especially important when you're dealing with billions of people.
Let's not faff about, there are no ballot boxes to protect round here :)
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