Amazon could be in hot water after a Chinese firm that is blacklisted by the United States reportedly sold $10 million worth of thermal cameras to the company.
More than 1,500 thermal cameras were shipped to Amazon warehouses by China’s Zhejiang Dahua Technology, and at least 500 of the cameras are being sold within the U.S., Reuters reported Wednesday citing three sources. Zhejiang Dahua Technology was placed on the Department of Commerce’s blacklist over concerns that it helped detain and monitor Uighur Muslims in China.
The Trump administration added the company, along with seven other tech firms, to the government’s blacklist last year after they were “implicated” in “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”
The Chinese Communist Party has been criticized by state officials around the world after the country detained more than 1 million Uighurs in “concentration camps” in the western province of Xinjiang. Administrators in the Chinese government say the ban lacks “any factual basis” and has urged the U.S. to rescind the company’s name from the blacklist.
Amazon refused to confirm the camera purchase, which is legal because rules barring business with blacklisted companies apply to government contract awards and not the private sector. However, the tech firm told Reuters it was purchasing similar heat-sensing cameras from “multiple” manufacturers.
Zhejiang Dahua Technology’s cameras have been implemented in hospitals, airports, and other places of public gatherings around the world during the pandemic. The International Business Machines Corp and Chrysler also purchased limited orders of the cameras as companies seek to procure measures that will enable their businesses to reopen safely.
