Washington, DC – This week, Representatives Gregory W. Meeks and Michael McCaul, Ranking Member and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to President Biden calling for a determination and sanction authorization on Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., a surveillance company facilitating internationally recognized human rights violations against Uyghur and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The letter gives the Biden administration 120 days to determine if Hikvision should be sanctioned pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act based on its clear track record in enabling internationally recognized human rights violations.
“In a 2022 report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) authoritatively determined that the PRC has committed serious human rights violations against the Uyghur population of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang),” the members wrote. “These human rights violations include arbitrary and discriminatory imprisonment of ethnic Uyghurs and Muslim minorities, torture and ill-treatment, interrogations, forced sterilizations, and repression of cultural, linguistic, and religious expression. Both Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have determined that these human rights violations constitute ‘genocide.’”
The full text of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear Mr. President,
In accordance with the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee are requesting that you determine if the entity Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., commonly known as Hikvision, has facilitated internationally recognized human rights violations, including against the minority Uyghur population of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Please report to the Committee within 120 days with a determination on the imposition of sanctions against the entity.
In a 2022 report, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) authoritatively determined that the PRC has committed serious human rights violations against the Uyghur population of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). These human rights violations include arbitrary and discriminatory imprisonment of ethnic Uyghurs and Muslim minorities, torture and ill-treatment, interrogations, forced sterilizations, and repression of cultural, linguistic, and religious expression. Both Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have determined that these human rights violations constitute “genocide.”
The U.S. government has taken enforcement actions against Hikvision for its complicity in these human rights violations using multiple authorities. The Department of Commerce designated Hikvision to its Entity List for its role in implementing the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) “campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the XUAR.” The Department of Defense has identified Hikvision as a PRC military company on both its Section 12374 and Section 1260H5list. Furthermore, section 889 of the John S. McCaul National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 prohibits federal agencies and federal contractors from procuring or obtaining equipment or services from several PRC entities, including Hikvision. In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules prohibiting communications equipment, including Hikvision, deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security from being authorized for importation or sale in the United States. Thus, we request that the President make a determination and authorize sanctions pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act against Hikvision based on its clear track record in enabling international recognized human rights violations in Xinjiang.
With this request, we call upon you to consider the information provided and any other credible sources of information to make a determination and authorize sanctions against Hikvision for its role in facilitating gross human rights violations against Uyghur and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
We look forward to receiving your determination.