US Places Top Chinese Artificial Intelligence Firms On Trade Blacklist

Allan Adamson, Tech Times 08 October 2019, 10:10 pm

The United States expanded its trade blacklist to include Chinese artificial intelligence and video surveillance companies, which it says China uses to repress Muslim minority groups.

AI And Video Surveillance Firms In Trade Blacklist

The move to place the companies in the Entity List effectively bans U.S. firms from selling technology to these firms without government approval, which could potentially cripple some of them.

Included in these blacklisted companies are Hikvision and Dahua, global providers of video surveillance technology, as well as AI startups SenseTime Group Ltd. and Megvii Technology Ltd.

Hikvision considers itself as the world's largest producer of CCTV systems.

SenseTime is a startup that specializes in AI services for use in smart city, transport, and education application.

Megvii is an image recognition developer and is one of the most valuable AI startups in the world.

Other companies included on the list by the U.S. Commerce Department are speech recognition firm iFlytek Co, surveillance gear maker Zhejiang Dahua Technology, data recovery company Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co., and facial recognition firm Yitu Technology.

The blacklist also targets local government agency in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.

Firms Acting Contrary To American Foreign Policy

The White House made the announcement before the U.S.-China trade talks resume in Washington this week.

The Commerce Department said the entities have been tied to human rights violations and abuses implemented as part of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance of Muslim minority groups, which include the Uighurs and the Kazakhs.

"The U.S. Government and Department of Commerce cannot and will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic minorities within China," Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said.

The action drew rebuke from China, which said that the United States should stop interfering in its affairs. The country's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that China will continue to take firm and resolute measures to protect its sovereign security.