The US is moving towards imposing sanctions on Chinese video surveillance company Hikvision, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing four people familiar with the talks.
The Biden administration is considering placing human rights-related sanctions on the Chinese company, according to the report.
The sanctions, if enforced, could have dire consequences for the maker of surveillance equipment, which was earlier added to a list of companies threatening US national security.
Washington has already begun briefing allies, given Hikvision has customers in more than 180 countries, two of the sources told FT.
The Federal Communications Commission in March 2021 had designated five Chinese companies, including Hikvision, as posing a threat to national security under a 2019 law aimed at protecting US communications networks. China’s Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Hytera Communications and Zhejiang Dahua Technology were the others in the list.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for a comment, while Hikvision was not immediately available during a public holiday in China. — Sneha Bhowmik and Tanvi Mehta, (c) 2022 Reuters