UHRP Applauds New Bill on Magnitsky Sanctions for Chinese Tech Companies Enabling Genocide: Hikvision, Dahua, Tiandy and BGI
December 19, 2022 | 10:00 a.m. EST
For Immediate Release
Contact: Omer Kanat +1 (202) 790-1795, Peter Irwin +1 (646) 906-7722
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) applauds the new Uyghur Human Rights Sanctions Review Act. Hikvision, Dahua, Tiandy and BGI are currently under export-control sanctions for their human rights abuses in East Turkistan. The legislation would require the Treasury Department to rule on freezing all U.S. assets of these companies, and banning them from the U.S. banking system, by imposing Global Magnitsky targeted human rights sanctions.
UHRP thanks Senator Marco Rubio and Representative August Pfluger for introducing the bill, and urges bipartisan support in the new Congress.
“It’s shocking that American companies are still permitted to do business with the companies providing ‘tiger chair’ torture devices and the systems for mass surveillance of Uyghurs,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat. “Uyghurs call for a complete ban on ‘business as usual’ with the companies helping the Chinese government commit genocide.”
Senator Rubio explained the issues forcefully in his statement introducing the bill, saying, “The Chinese Communist Party uses technology to target and persecute anyone they deem to be an enemy of their Stalinist regime. It is a sickening abuse of human rights.”
UHRP applauds Representative Pfluger’s statement introducing the bill, explaining that it targets ”Chinese surveillance companies that help the Chinese Communist Party” with harvesting genomic data and torturing ethnic and religious groups, and its purpose is to ensure that Americans “will not be complicit in these atrocious human rights violations.”
The Uyghur Human Rights Sanctions Review Act would require the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Departments of State and Justice, to make a determination within 30 days regarding whether the companies have committed or been complicit in human rights abuses in East Turkistan. The Act requires a decision on whether the four companies meet the criteria for SDN List sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act and the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020.
UHRP also thanks Senator Rubio for calling for more Commerce Department sanctions in a separate statement last week: “Adding Tiandy, PXW, and YMTC to the Entity List is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, many more problematic Chinese companies remain unsanctioned. The Department of Commerce needs to be more aggressive in using all available tools to identify and punish bad actors.”
Read more:
Uyghur Groups Write to Dahua’s American and Canadian Executives: “You should resign”, Dec 15, 2022
UHRP: Federal Retirement Savings Must Not Be Invested in Chinese Corporate Human Rights Abusers, May 19, 2022
UHRP Letter to US Dept of Commerce on Adding Tiandy and Uniview to Export-Control Entity List, Oct 19, 2021
UHRP Calls for U.S. Investigation of Universal Electronics Products Made with Uyghur Forced Labor, Oct 8, 2021
UHRP Written Submission to House Trade Subcommittee: Urging a Ban on U.S. Investment in PRC Companies Under Human Rights Sanctions, July 21, 2021.
UHRP applauds FCC Commissioner’s call for stronger response to CCP’s Uyghur genocide, Apr 1, 2021.
UHRP Testimony before USCIRF: Addressing the Complicity of U.S. Companies in Uyghur Forced Labor, Mar 10, 2021
Civil society groups applaud Norway Oil Fund divestment from Hikvision, urge further action, Sep 24, 2020