The Chinese company, which calls itself the world’s largest manufacturer of video surveillance equipment, announced the end of some contracts in Xinjiang. An olive branch extended to the next American administration?
17/12/2024
It had been Donald Trump to take an interest in TikTok by proposing restrictions on the Chinese app in the United States for national security reasons. Then it was Joe Biden to sign the law that imposes a ban unless operations in the country are sold to a non-Chinese company by January 19th. In these four years of the Biden administration, the former and future President Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20, has given the impression of being able to change his position.
Precisely these oscillations and Trump’s transactional nature seem to have pushed the Chinese company Hikvision, which defines itself as the largest manufacturer of video surveillance equipment in the world, to announce last Friday that it had abandoned the contracts it had in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, at the center of discussions for the treatment of the Uyghur minority (for the United States it is “genocide”). The contracts had been signed by five of its subsidiaries that were added to a list of U.S. trade blocs last year for allegedly helping in the repression and high-tech surveillance of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the region. The Chinese government has consistently denied any allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and has criticized or targeted companies for eliminating Xinjiang businesses from their supply chains.
Blacklisted by Trump in 2019, Hikvision has now provided no reasons for the choice. According to the South China Morning Postthe tycoon’s return to the White House is awaited, hoping for a softer policy. An issue that also concerns the United States’ allies – including Italy – who could see information sharing limited due to doubts about the management of data by Chinese technology suppliers.
