Why Intel Worked With Chinese Firms Sanctioned For Enabling Human Rights Abuses

Forbes

The U.S. government will take a 10% stake in the company, whose technology has been used by sanctioned Chinese surveillance and facial recognition firms.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2025/08/26/intel-worked-with-chinese-firms-sanctioned-for-enabling-human-rights-abuses/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

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00:00Today on Forbes, Intel worked with Chinese firms sanctioned for enabling human rights abuses.

00:07Last Friday, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. government would take a 10% stake

00:12in the hardware manufacturer, Intel, involving the government in the private tech industry

00:17in a new, unprecedented way. Now Forbes has learned that Intel has little-known partnerships

00:22with multiple Chinese surveillance firms, including Uniview, which landed on a U.S.

00:28sanctions list last year, quote, because it enables human rights violations, including

00:33high-technology surveillance targeted at the general population, Uyghurs, and members of

00:38other ethnic and religious minority groups. Uniview has asked the U.S. to reconsider the

00:44sanctions. Intel's Chinese-language site also includes documents referencing partnerships

00:50with Hikvision, a major surveillance camera manufacturer that has been hit with a barrage

00:55of sanctions in the last five years, and Cloudwalk, a facial recognition company which

01:00was sanctioned in 2021. Both companies have been accused by the U.S. government of allegedly

01:05enabling human rights abuses through surveillance of Uyghurs.

01:09In promotional materials for its so-called Deep Eye smart camera on Intel's website,

01:15Hikvision enthusiastically describes its, quote,

01:17in-depth cooperation with Intel, and lists multiple ways Intel's tech is integrated into

01:22its surveillance technology. It says, quote,

01:26this kind of collaboration and cyclical innovation has enabled Hikvision to achieve gratifying results

01:31in promoting intelligent video surveillance. A note for our viewers and listeners, these quotes

01:37are machine-translated. Intel also highlights the use of its Atom processor in Cloudwalk's

01:44Juyang smart cameras, which it says are focused on retail. In a statement to Forbes, Intel spokesperson

01:50Nancy Sanchez did not dispute the partnerships. She said, quote,

01:55Intel is committed to adhering to all relevant laws and regulations where we operate and upholding

01:59responsible business practices which guide our actions across our operations, products, and supply

02:04chain. As part of this, we adhere to internationally recognized frameworks such as the UN Guiding

02:10principles, ILO conventions, and OECD guidelines. These guide our actions across our operations,

02:16products, and supply chain. Sanchez noted that, quote,

02:21most Intel products are general-purpose components distributed through third parties

02:25and cannot always be directed in their final use. But she said the company holds, quote,

02:30suppliers, customers, and distributors to the same responsible business standards. If we become aware

02:35of credible misuse, we act swiftly, restricting or halting business until we're confident our

02:40products are not enabling abuse. The company's website identifies Uniview as a, quote,

02:46Titanium member partner and promotes its, quote, video-connected all-in-one machine,

02:52which it describes as a security camera setup that uses Intel technology to facilitate,

02:56quote, image-slash-object detection-slash-recognition-slash-classification,

03:02and, quote, video surveillance and analysis. The product's coverage area, per the website,

03:08is the Chinese mainland, Macau, and Hong Kong. The Intel website also touts Uniview's so-called,

03:14quote, smart city solution, which uses Intel smart cameras and vision processors in its surveillance

03:20tech. Intel's site says Uniview's smart city solution is available in China, as well as most other

03:26markets around the world, including North America. It's unclear when Intel's partnership with

03:32Uniview began, but the Uniview brochure on Intel's website advertising Uniview's so-called

03:37all-in-one machine specified a release date of March 11, 2025. The HickVision case study and

03:44CloudWalk partnership website are not dated. In 2020, reporting from the surveillance research

03:50group IPVM showed that Uniview had pioneered a, quote, ethnicity detection software that

03:56claimed to be able to detect people of Uyghur descent in its surveillance footage. Uniview didn't

04:01respond to comment requests from IPVM at the time. Along with HickVision and Dahua, another

04:07sanctioned Chinese surveillance company, Uniview helped the Chinese government write standards

04:12for race-based surveillance in 2020. The company is a major supplier of surveillance software to the

04:17Chinese government and has direct partnerships with numerous police forces across China, including

04:23for so-called smart prison, smart police, and smart traffic applications. Uniview did not respond to

04:30a comment request. For full coverage and to see links to archives of the websites referenced in the

04:36story, check out Emily Baker White's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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