The United States has added 33 Chinese firms and institutions to an economic blacklist for helping Beijing to spy on its minority Uighur population or because of ties to weapons of mass destruction and China's military.
The US Commerce Department's move marked the Trump administration's latest efforts to crack down on companies whose goods may support the Chinese military and to punish Beijing for its treatment of Muslim minorities.
It came as Beijing unveiled details of a plan on Friday to impose national security laws on Hong Kong.
Companies and institutions were sanctioned for being "complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labour and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs" and others, the US Commerce Department said in a statement.
Seven companies, including top technology firms, were sanctioned for "enabling China's high-technology surveillance" in Xinjiang.
The department also blacklisted 24 firms, government institutions and commercial organizations for supporting procurement of items for use by the Chinese military.
The firms focus on artificial intelligence and facial recognition, markets that US chip companies like Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp have been heavily investing in. Among the firms named is NetPosa, whose facial recognition subsidiary is linked to the surveillance of Muslims.
Qihoo 360, a cyber-security firm delisted from Nasdaq in 2015, recently made headlines for claiming it had found evidence that US Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools were used to target the Chinese aviation sector.
The previous year, the US added 28 Chinese public security bureaus and firms to a trade blacklist over the treatment of Uighur Muslims.
REUTERS