US puts Hikvision, Chinese security bureaus on economic blacklist

The US Commerce Department said on Monday it was putting 28 Chinese public security bureaus and companies – including video surveillance company Hikvision – on a US trade blacklist over Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities, reported Reuters.

Those added to the “Entity List” include the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region People’s Government Public Security Bureau, 19 subordinate government agencies and eight commercial firms, according to a Commerce Department filing. The companies include Zhejiang Dahua Technology , IFLYTEK Co , Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co and Yixin Science and Technology Co.

The department filing said the “entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”