The US has sanctioned five Xinjiang-based subsidiaries of the Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision while confirming that the "policy interest of protecting human rights worldwide" is a new criteria for the trade blacklist.
Added to the US Commerce Department's Entity List on Tuesday were Luopu Haishi Dingxin Electronic Technology Co., Moyu Haishi Electronic Technology Co., Pishan Haishi Yong'an Electronic Technology Co., Urumqi Haishi Xin'an Electronic Technology Co. and Yutian Haishi Meitian Electronic Technology Co.
Each of the Xinjiang firms are subsidiaries of Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, a Chinese state-owned manufacturer that provides surveillance cameras used in the far northwestern region of China, according to the Chinese corporation database Qichacha.
The companies are also partly owned by investment management vehicles affiliated with local governments, the Chinese portal shows.
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Hikvision, the world's largest supplier of surveillance cameras, was added to the US Entity List in 2019 as a result of Beijing's treatment of Uygur Muslims and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.
The five companies "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 the Uygur people and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region", according to a document released by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.
The US House Select Committee on China's second hearing last Thursday highlighted what members said was genocide against Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Beijing calls the genocide allegations a lie that stem from anti-China elements.
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"The door to Xinjiang is always open. People of all countries with no prejudice are welcome to visit Xinjiang and see the place with their own eyes," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday.
In total, 11 corporations and organisations were added to the Entity List on Tuesday for "acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States". The other sanctioned entities are from Myanmar, Russia and Nicaragua.
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The Commerce Department also amended its regulations to "explicitly confirm that the foreign policy interest of protecting human rights worldwide is a basis for adding entities to the Entity List".
The move came as the United States co-hosted the second Summit for Democracy in Washington, where strengthening human rights is a focus.
