US seeks to blacklist Chinese AI tech firms

The United States is blacklisting a group of Chinese tech companies that develop facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technology that the U.S. says is being used to repress China’s Muslim minority groups.

A move by the U.S. Commerce Department puts the companies on a so-called Entity List for acting contrary to American foreign policy interests. The blacklist effectively bars U.S. firms from selling technology to the Chinese companies without government approval.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday that the U.S. government “will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic minorities within China.”

The blacklisted companies include Hikvision and Dahua, both of which are global providers of video surveillance technology.

Hikvision said in a statement that it respects human rights and strongly opposes the Trump administration’s decision. The company said it has spent a year trying to “clarify misunderstandings about the company and address their concerns.”

Prominent Chinese AI firms such as Sense Time, Megvii and iFlytek are also on the list. Sense Time and Megvii are known for the development of computer vision technology that underpins facial recognition products, while iFlytek is known for its voice recognition.

The companies are among 28 organizations added to the blacklist Monday. Along with the tech companies, the Commerce Department’s filing targets local government agencies in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

The filing said the listed groups have been implicated in “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance” against Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim minority groups.

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP A security camera outside of a shop in Beijing made by Hikvision, which the U.S. has blacklisted.