US sanctions DJI and AI firms including Megvii over alleged Xinjiang human rights abuses
- Chinese AI giant SenseTime was added to blacklist last week, which led it to postpone its Hong Kong IPO
- Other sanctioned firms include AI firms CloudWalk Technology and Yitu Technology, and supercomputer maker Dawning Information Industry
“Today’s action highlights how private firms in China’s defence and surveillance technology sectors are actively cooperating with the government’s efforts to repress members of ethnic and religious minority groups,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence
“Treasury remains committed to ensuring that the US financial system and American investors are not supporting these activities,” he added.
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The blacklist places the named entities on the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC), covering those not fully blocked under the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN) list. It bars US investors from taking financial stakes in listed firms.
The move to sanction eight more Chinese firms focuses mostly on AI and cloud-computing developers.
The sanctioned companies include AI firms CloudWalk Technology and Yitu Technology; supercomputer maker Dawning Information Industry, which is also known as Sugon; Xiamen Meiya Pico, whose clients are mainly law enforcement departments; Leon Technology, a provider of security software and telecommunication solutions; and NetPosa Technologies, a producer of cloud-based surveillance systems.