Chinese surveillance firm Hikvision ends Xinjiang government contracts ahead of Trump 2.0

US-sanctioned Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision has terminated five contracts with local government authorities in Xinjiang, as it braces for the second term of US president-elect Donald Trump, who first put Hikvision on a trade blacklist in 2019.

Hikvision ended the contracts for its public security projects in the far-western region of China, where local subsidiaries signed the deals with municipal governments in the region in 2017, the state-owned surveillance equipment maker said in a statement on Friday.

The projects have been completed since 2018 and entered a maintenance phase, according to Hikvision. The five local subsidiaries will continue to work on clearing debts and receivables, but will no longer engage in other business activities, the company added.

The five Hikvision subsidiaries – Luopu Haishi Dingxin Electronic Technology, Moyu Haishi Electronic Technology, Pishan Haishi Yongan Electronic Technology, Urumqi Haishi Xinan Electronic Technology, and Yutian Haishi Meitian Electronic Technology – were added in March last year to the so-called Entity List managed by a bureau under the US Department of Commerce.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security alleged the companies were involved in “human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance against the Uygur people and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region”.