Sony, Sharp supply parts to U.S.-blacklisted China security video firm Hikvision

Sony Corp. and Sharp Corp. have supplied parts to video surveillance company Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., one of 28 Chinese entities blacklisted by the United States last month over human rights violations, the Chinese company's product brochures show. Hikvision -- the world's largest video surveillance company -- employs image sensors supplied by Sony in 180 of its surveillance camera models and sensors from Sharp in two camera models, according to its product brochures. The company previously stated on its website that one of its surveillance camera models could identify members of the Uighur ethnic minority group, but it removed the product from the website after the company was added to the U.S. trade blacklist. Communist Party documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have revealed that China has deployed a surveillance and predictive-policing system in its crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslims minorities in China's far-western Xinjiang autonomous region. BBC video footage has shown Hikvision surveillance cameras installed in a Chinese detention center for Uighurs.