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US-China relations
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US sanctions Chinese AI firm SenseTime, Xinjiang officials, citing human rights abuses

  • US Treasury claims SenseTime is responsible for ‘abuse enabled by the malign use of technology’
  • The move reportedly delays SenseTime’s Hong Kong IPO, which was already halved

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Xu Li, chief executive officer of SenseTime Group Ltd., is identified by the company’s facial recognition system on a screen as he poses for a photograph at SenseTime’s showroom in Beijing in 2018. Photo: Bloomberg
Jacob Fromer
US President Joe Biden’s administration imposed economic sanctions on the Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime Group and two senior government officials in far-west Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses in the region, the Treasury Department announced on Friday.
The move has reportedly disrupted the company’s plans to sell shares in an initial public offering after it was trimmed by about half earlier this week.

“Treasury is using its tools to expose and hold accountable perpetrators of serious human rights abuse,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, identifying SenseTime as being responsible for “human rights abuse enabled by the malign use of technology”.

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The sanctions add to the administration’s previous moves to crack down on Chinese corporations and officials seen as violating the rights of Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, further entrenching Biden’s hardline stance on Beijing almost one year into his presidency.

The Treasury Department added SenseTime to the administration’s investment blacklist, which blocks Americans from buying shares of the company’s stock.

The move comes just as the company has been preparing to file a US$768 million initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange, which now appears delayed because of Washington’s move, according to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

“SenseTime 100 per cent owns Shenzhen Sensetime Technology Co. Ltd., which has developed facial recognition programs that can determine a target’s ethnicity, with a particular focus on identifying ethnic Uygurs,” the department said.

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