On Friday, U.S. government under the leadership of President Joe Biden added several Chinese companies and other entities to an economic blacklist called the Entity List, over their alleged human rights abuses and citizen surveillance in Xinjiang.
The U.S. Commerce Department explained that the companies were added because they had been "implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass detention, and high technology surveillance" against the Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
According to Reuters, the new additions to the U.S. Entity List are the China Academy of Electronics and Information Technology in Haidian District, Beijing, Xinjiang Lianhai Chuangzhi Information Technology Co, Shenzhen Cobber Information Technology Co. which supplies face recognition products, Xinjiang Sailing Information Technology which develops security software; Beijing Geling Shentong Information Technology, which according to The Verge is "a facial recognition company with deep ties to Chinese police surveillance," Shenzhen Hua'antai Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., and Chengdu Xiwu Security System Alliance Co., Ltd.
Such additions were first heard of late Thursday. Beijing has denied all allegations of human rights abuses against the communist state and the companies in it.
But these Chinese companies aren't the only newcomers to the U.S. Entity List. The U.S. Commerce Department explained that it was adding 34 entities, including some organizations based in Russia and Iran, as well as five groups that are "directly supporting China's military modernization programs related to lasers and battle management system."
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo explained in a statement, "The Department of Commerce remains firmly committed to taking strong, decisive action to target entities that are enabling human rights abuses in Xinjiang or that use U.S. technology to fuel China's destabilizing military modernization efforts."
The Entity List also includes eight organizations that are accused of facilitating the export of U.S. products to Iran and six groups that are involved in the procurement of U.S.-origin electronic components that are believed to support Russian military programs.
The addition of these companies came after the department decided in June to add five more Chinese companies and entities over their alleged human rights violations and forced labor in Xinjiang. China categorically denies all allegations of abuse against the Uyghur Muslim minorities in the region.
According to Radio Free Asia, the addition of 14 more Chinese companies to the Entity List over their alleged human rights abuses was welcomed by several human rights advocates, including Rushan Abbas, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs.
Abbas expressed their high hopes that the European Union and other governments will follow suit in decrying the involvement of these companies in the numerous cases of human rights abuses in China, calling on the "international community to be aware of the trade relations that are enabled by the enormous plight of Uyghurs in East Turkestan."
International human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat argued that these sanctions on Chinese companies involved in human rights abuses will prevent western companies from "contributing to genocide and from implicating unwitting consumers in crimes against humanity."
