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The Treasury Department on Thursday blacklisted eight Chinese companies, including the global drone market leader. DJI TechnologyAs part of a campaign to punish what US officials say is illegal surveillance of minority Uighurs and other Chinese ethnic and religious groups by Beijing.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has identified eight firms associated with biometric surveillance and tracking. Chinese Including West Xinjiang province, where the State Department declared genocide against the Muslim Uyghur population in the region in January. Tech companies were sanctioned under a June presidential order designed to prevent the financing of American securities. chinese military.
The sanctions prohibit US companies from buying and selling certain publicly traded securities linked to companies.
“Today’s action is that private firms Chinese“The defense and surveillance technology sectors are actively collaborating with government efforts to suppress members of ethnic and religious minority groups.”
“The Treasury is determined to ensure that the US financial system and American investors do not support these activities.”
Among the eight companies, major drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. is the dominant player among the world’s commercial drone manufacturers with an estimated 70% of the global market. is located. The company also supplies the Chinese police in Xinjiang with drones used against the Uyghurs. The police force there was sanctioned in July 2020 for human rights violations.
A DJI spokesperson did not comment on the Treasury action, but did provide a response to similar action by the Commerce Department last year.
“DJI has done nothing to justify inclusion on the Entity List,” he said in the earlier statement. “We have always focused on developing products that save lives and benefit society. DJI and its employees are committed to providing our customers with the industry’s most innovative technology. “We are evaluating options to ensure that our customers, partners and suppliers are treated fairly.”
According to the Treasury statement, Chen Quanguo, the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang, increased the oppressive surveillance of Uyghurs in the region.
“Such actions have included setting up thousands of neighborhood police booths and installing security cameras everywhere, collecting biometric data for identification purposes, and more intrusive monitoring of internet use,” the statement said.
Between 1 million and 1.8 million Uighurs and others in ethnic and religious minority groups, including Kazakhs, were forced into “re-education” centers, which critics call concentration camps.
Mr. Chen was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Liability Act in 2020 for his role in major human rights abuses.
The sanctions against DJI are a strike against the drone manufacturer whose equipment was purchased by the Biden administration despite the domestic government’s warnings against the company. A DJI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The pressure exerted by the government points to a different approach than the Biden administration has taken before.
Government procurement records show the Secret Service purchased eight commercial surveillance drones made by DJI earlier this year – despite a Defense Department warning in July, the deal poses “potential threats to national security.” The FBI also searched DJI drones while the Secret Service was making their purchases.
The actions of the Secret Service and the FBI not only bypassed the Pentagon warning, but were previously blacklisted by the Trump administration. Last December, the Trump administration added DJI to the Commerce Department’s ‘Entity List’, which places restrictions on certain foreign individuals and companies and prevents Americans from doing things like investing in foreign ventures that could pose national security issues. The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it has added a few points more Chinese academies, companies and others to the Commerce Department’s blacklist.
Public pressure increased on the Biden administration to explain its actions. Republican Jim Banks of Indiana wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland about the Secret Service and the FBI, stating that the lawmaker is pushing for a ban on DJI drones, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Other companies approved by the Treasury are Cloudwalk Technology Co., Ltd.; Dawning Information Industry Co., Ltd.; Leon Technology Limited Company; Megvii Technology Limited; Netposa Technologies Limited; Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co., Ltd.; and Yitu Limited.
Cloudwalk and Yitu Limited have developed facial recognition, which tech critics say is used for printing in China. Cloudwalk’s vehicles are also used by the Zimbabwe government for mass surveillance activities.
The Dawning Information Industry operates aggregate data collection systems, including those used by the police and the Chinese military. The company’s subsidiary, known as Sugon, has set up a cloud computing center in Urumqi, China, that uses “predictive policing” in Xinjiang, the statement said.
Leon Technology installed a surveillance system in Xinjiang and Megvii Technology developed software used against the Uyghurs. The collection of facial recognition data is used by Netposa Technologies, which Treasury officials claim is being used to track more than 2.5 million people in Xinjiang.
Xiamen Meiya Pico Information provided a mobile application that monitors images, audio files and location data and sends messages to mobile phones. The company provided a Uyghur translation and transcription tool to authorities in Xinjiang.
Eight firms are also on the Department of Commerce’s “entries list” that require an export license for any interaction with US firms.
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