The US will put 8 more Chinese companies including dronemaker DJI on an investment blacklist, report says
- Dronemaker DJI and 7 other Chinese companies will be added to a US investment blacklist Thursday, the Financial Times reported.
- They are being blacklisted for alleged involvement in the surveillance of the Uyghur Muslim minority, the Wednesday report said.
The US is adding eight Chinese companies to its investment blocklist over their alleged involvement in the surveillance of Uyghur Muslims, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Drone maker DJI is one of the names joining the US Treasury's "Chinese military-industrial complex companies" list on Thursday, the FT report said, citing two people briefed on the matter.
The move bars US investors from taking a financial stake in the eight companies, like for the other 60 names already.
President Joe Biden's administration has criticized Beijing over human rights issues often, as it tackles China's growing influence around the world. In March, it sanctioned the country for alleged genocide in its repression of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the western region of Xinjiang.
Since 2014, activists and researchers have accused China of widespread abuse of the Uyghur people, a Turkic Muslim minority ethnic group, Insider's Áine Cain reported.
Beijing has been accused of implementing tactics like mass government surveillance, carrying out forced sterilization, and re-education camps, in a campaign described as "ethnic cleansing." The Chinese government has denied these accusations.
The US, UK, Australia, and Canada this month announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, scheduled for February next year, to put pressure on China over human rights.
SenseTime said this week it would postpone its $767 million initial public offering in Hong Kong, after reports the Chinese artificial intelligence company was being put on the US investment blacklist. DJI and SenseTime didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.
Megvii, a facial-recognition startup, and Dawning Information Industry, a provider of supercomputer-based cloud-computing services in Xinjian, are among those joining the list.
Other additions are facial-recognition provider CloudWalk Technology; cybersecurity group Xiamen Meiya Pico; AI developer Yitu Technology; cloud-computing provider Leon Technology; and cloud-based surveillance system maker NetPosa Technologies.
Megvii and DJI are not publicly-listed. Dawning trades in Shanghai, while Leon, NetPosa, and Meiya Pico are listed in Shenzhen.
The US Commerce Department is also set to place more than two dozen Chinese companies, including some biotech names, on its "entity list," the FT said, citing people familiar with the pending action. Exports by US companies to those named is restricted.
The Hang Seng Healthcare Index, which tracks Hong Kong-listed healthcare businesses, tumbled 7% at Wednesday's market close.
Separately on Thursday, the Biden administration will review hardening its rules on US companies selling tech to Chinese chipmaker SMIC. Trump's administration placed SMIC in the entity list last year, but a flaw made it possible for some companies to exploit a provision under that decision.