It will be interesting if a lot of research gets published in Chinese journals and not the West. If this happens I wonder if Western researchers will get their information from Chinese journals or lag a bit behind Chinese researchers on the answers to these questions.
The submitted title is misleading. There's no allegation much less any definitive finding of unethical collection: the justification was that the "[consent] documentation was not sufficiently detailed to resolve the concerns raised". (Obviously they were deemed sufficient at the time of initial publication). One wonders what detail level would suffice in the current political climate, especially to address the concern of someone who believes that the mere fact of having some co-authors affiliated with public security authorities "voids any notion of free informed consent".[1]<p>The actions of individuals like Moreau also have significant unintended consequences such destroying the careers of junior academics such as Halimureti Simayijiang, who is Uyghur & even got his PhD from University of Copenhagen but who was unfortunate enough to have developed a research interest in forensic genetics. Basically no research Halimureti does will have any chance of being published in a Western journal given the campaign of folks like Moreau.[3]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/china-retracts-papers-molecular-genetics-genomic-medicine" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/china-retracts...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/academic-paper-uyghur-genetic-data-retracted-ethical-concerns" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/academic-paper...</a><p><a href="http://www.fyagctu.com/news/?web_28.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.fyagctu.com/news/?web_28.html</a><p>[3] (from the guardian piece cited) In an email to Irene Tracey, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, which was seen by the Guardian, Moreau said: “The standard for informed consent is free informed consent,” which he argues is impossible in the context of Xinjiang.
Similar controversy surrounds whether Nazi medical research may be cited. I (ironically) cite no sources, but I believe the consensus is that they may be cited if a) they are methodologically sound and b) other studies cannot serve as a substitute.<p>I am personally of the opinion that “information wants to be free” and ethics is not a reason to ignore methodologically-sound, published science. Punish the researchers, perhaps