US to blacklist Chinese companies including dronemaker DJI over surveillance issues

The Biden administration will ban American investment in eight Chinese companies, including DJI, the world's biggest drone manufacturer, for carrying out surveillance on the Uyghur Muslims. The move marks an effort by US President Joe Biden to stop China from persecuting Muslim ethnic groups residing in China. According to a report published by The Financial Times, the US Treasury Department will announce its "Chinese military-industrial complex companies" blacklist, which already includes 60 Chinese groups on the blacklist.

In the draft announcement by the US Treasury Department, it said that the actions of Chinese companies highlight "how private firms in China’s defense and surveillance technology sectors are actively cooperating with the government’s efforts to persecute ethnic minorities", reported The Wall Street Journal, citing the Financial Times. However, there has been no official confirmation from the White House regarding the ban.

US to ban Chinese companies over surveillance of Uyghur Muslims

Earlier, the US spokesman for DJI stated that the company hadn't received any official notice of blacklisting. Recently, a facial recognition software company, SenseTime, postponed its plan to invest in Hong Kong after a report published by the Financial Times surfaced on the internet. The Chinese companies that will be blacklisted include Megvii, CloudWalk Technology, Xiamen Meiya Pico, Yitu Technology, NetPosa Technologies, Leon Technology, among others.

This comes in view of China’s policies in Xinjiang, where more than 1 million Uyghurs and Muslim minority groups have been held in extreme conditions in detention camps. Notably, the White House also announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. According to a Financial Times report, the Biden administration is likely to tighten rules on US companies selling technology to Chinese chip manufacturers.

Who are the Uyghur Muslims?

Uyghur Muslims are a Turkic ethnic group who live in the north-western region of Xinjiang. There are nearly 12 million Uyghurs residing in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). It is believed that the Chinese regime has forced over 1 million Uyghur Muslims to live in detention camps, which the state calls "re-education camps" and has detained hundreds of thousands in prison. The minority group living in the Xinjiang region has mostly been subjected to forced labor, exploitation, sexual abuse, and mass sterilization of women. The US has been at the forefront of accusing China of committing genocide in Xinjiang. However, the Chinese government has always denied all the allegations.

Image: AP