US adds 2 Chinese firms to trade blacklist over human rights concerns

The United States added two Chinese companies to a trade restriction list on Tuesday for allegedly enabling human rights violations, as US President Joe Biden kept up the pressure on Beijing in the waning days of his administration.

The US Commerce Department, which oversees export policy, added Zhejiang Uniview Technologies Co. to the entity list “because it enables human rights violations, including high-technology surveillance targeted at the general population, Uygurs, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups”, the agency said in a filing.

China’s Beijing Zhongdun Security Technology Group Co. was added for selling products that “enable China’s public security establishment to carry out human rights violations”.

“Human rights abuses are contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States,” US Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in a statement.

Adding these companies to the entity list aims to “ensure that US technology is not used to enable human rights violations and abuses”, he added.

Uniview did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing Zhongdun Security could not be reached for comment.