The White House has placed more than two dozen Chinese technology companies and government agencies on a blacklist, saying they are “implicated in human rights violations and abuses” of Muslim minorities in northwest China.
The list of 28 organizations includes some of China’s biggest technology surveillance and artificial intelligence companies. They have been placed on the same Entity List as Chinese telecom giant Huawei, meaning U.S. companies are barred from doing business with them without a license.
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The list includes eight of China’s biggest technology companies, all of whom have well-documented links to surveillance in Xinjiang province or products that target Uighurs.
“These 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,” the Commerce Department bulletin said.
The move comes just days before officials from Beijing are due in Washington to restart stalled trade talks.
China reacted angrily to the latest sanctions, and dismissed the allegations that the firms were involved in a brutal crackdown against ethnic Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province.
READ: Inside China’s hidden war on Uighurs
“There is no such thing as these so-called ‘human rights issues’ as claimed by the United States,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news conference on Tuesday. “These accusations are nothing more than an excuse for the United States to deliberately interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
“We urge the U.S. side to immediately correct its mistake, withdraw the relevant decision, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” Geng added.
When asked if China would retaliate, Geng simply said, “Stay tuned.”
The Chinese companies hit by the latest sanctions have also come out strongly against the Commerce Department’s decision.
READ: Uighur parents say China is ripping their children away and brainwashing them
SenseTime, an AI company valued at $7 billion, said it was “deeply disappointed” by the Department of Commerce’s decision and rejected allegations it had done anything wrong. Hikvision, makers of high-tech surveillance equipment, said it “strongly opposes today’s decision by the U.S. government” claiming the firm “respects human rights and takes our responsibility to protect people in the U.S. and the world seriously.”
Beijing has constructed an elaborate surveillance infrastructure in Xinjiang province, claiming it is part of the fight against Islamic extremism among the Uighurs. Central to this are vast internment camps that China calls “vocational training centres.” Testimony from people who have escaped these camps details systemic abuse and torture at the hands of Chinese authorities.
Cover: In this Aug. 20, 2018, photo, Meripet, 29, prays at her home in Istanbul, Turkey. Meripet came to Turkey in February 2017 to visit her sick father, leaving four children behind. While in Turkey, she heard Uighur passports were being seized and that people who had gone abroad were being taken to reeducation, so she stayed in Turkey, giving birth to Abduweli. She hasn’t seen her other four children since, and heard they were taken to a live-in kindergarten in Hotan, China. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)
