A UK trade minister met representatives of a Chinese facial recognition company during an outcry over its alleged involvement in the repression and internment of China’s Muslim minority.

Graham Stuart MP held the meeting with SenseTime in June 2019 to discuss artificial intelligence and data in higher education, despite reports that the company’s products had been used in Xinjiang province, where at least a million Uighur Muslims have been detained without trial.

At the time, US lawmakers were urging investors to stop putting money into Chinese facial recognition companies, on the grounds that their technologies are being used to commit human rights abuses.

SenseTime, described as the “world’s most valuable AI start-up”, is one of eight Chinese companies – including Hikvision, Magvii and Yitu – that have since been targeted by punitive export controls in the US for acting “against the foreign policy interests of the United States”. The rules, introduced in October, mean that exports of components to those companies will be “presumptively denied” or go through a case-by-case review.