Chinese AI facial recognition software firm SenseTime was also added to a US blacklist.
The United States Treasury slapped sanctions on 25 individuals and entities on Friday, citing human rights abuses, and blacklisted a Chinese maker of artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition software, citing its role in the repression of Muslim Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
In addition to China, Friday’s raft of sanctions targeted people and entities linked to human rights abuses in Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh. Canada and the United Kingdom joined the US in announcing sanctions over repression in Myanmar.
“On International Human Rights Day, Treasury is using its tools to expose and hold accountable perpetrators of serious human rights abuse,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo in a statement posted on the department’s website.
Treasury added AI firm SenseTime Group Limited to a list of Chinese blacklisted firms for developing facial recognition programmes “that can determine a target’s ethnicity, with a particular focus on identifying ethnic Uyghurs”. The Treasury noted that the software can identify Uighurs wearing beards, sunglasses and masks.
The United Nations and more than 40 mostly western nations have called out China for the reported torture and repression of Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang – charges Beijing denies.
The Treasury on Friday also sanctioned two Chinese officials over the detention of “more than one million Uyghurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups” during their tenures.
Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion and six individuals linked to it were sanctioned by Treasury for being “an entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse”.
A Russian university and its provost were sanctioned on Friday for their alleged role in facilitating the export of workers from North Korea, which helps bring foreign currency into the country.
A North Korean government-run animation studio and individuals and entities connected to it were blacklisted as well.
Friday’s sanctions also targeted North Korea’s Central Public Prosecutor’s Office and a former security minister.