In July 2020, the United States Department of Commerce sanctioned 11 Chinese firms, two of which were subsidiaries of BGI Group, for violating the human rights of Uyghur Muslims and minorities belonging to other ethnicities in China, by exploiting their genetic sequence.[177] The BGI Group along with an Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud computing firm Group 42 – accused of espionage in 2019 – were named by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department in an October 2020 warning issued to Nevada against the use of the 200,000 COVID-19 test kits donated by UAE under the partnership of G42 and the BGI Group. The US intelligence agencies have warned of foreign powers exploiting patient's medical samples to dig into their medical history, genetic traits, illnesses, etc.[178]