Following a report from BuzzFeed News, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Tom Suozzi want to scrutinize the ties between US institutional investors and two successful Chinese facial recognition companies, SenseTime and Megvii.

ImagineChina/Newscom A laptop computer shows the facial recognition system of Chinese software maker Megvii during an expo in Chengdu, China, in December 2018.

US lawmakers are urging institutions to reevaluate their financial relationships with facial recognition companies operating in Xinjiang, China, in light of a BuzzFeed News investigation that found US public pension funds, universities, and foundations are funding two startups developing technology used in the surveillance of Chinese citizens. Last month, BuzzFeed News reported that organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation, Princeton University, and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest public employee retirement fund, have helped fund SenseTime and Megvii, two leading Chinese facial recognition companies whose technology is used by the Chinese government to surveil its citizens. Of major concern for human rights activists and lawmakers is the deployment of those facial recognition tools in Xinjiang, a heavily surveilled region in northwest China that is home to more than 11 million Uighur Muslims. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have detained more than a million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in internment camps. Detainees who’ve escaped have reported being subjected to torture, abuse, and political indoctrination.

“We must stop this, period.”

“China uses its growing and unfettered access to America’s over $30 trillion capital markets to help finance its military threats, espionage, and egregious human rights abuses,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a longtime critic of Chinese policies, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. “We must stop this, period.” As BuzzFeed News first reported, large US institutional investors entrusted their money to venture capital or private equity firms that in turn invested in SenseTime or Megvii. For example, the Florida State Board of Administration, which oversees the assets of the Florida Retirement System, is one of many “limited partners” in private equity giant Silver Lake Partners, an investor in a $600 million round of funding in SenseTime in April 2018. Rubio did not directly comment on this investment relationship. Using venture capital intelligence services and public disclosures, BuzzFeed News identified six prominent universities and 19 public pension plans or retirement systems that have an indirect interest in at least one of the two companies. There are likely more, since not all limited partners in venture or private equity firms are required to publicly disclose their investments. “I’m deeply disturbed by the Chinese government’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which have been marked by extensive surveillance and internment of Uighur Muslims,” said Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, whose state treasury is an indirect investor in Megvii through Silicon Valley venture firm GGV Capital. “I would encourage any American-run fund to examine their investments and seriously consider divesting from companies whose technologies are being used to commit these abuses.”

“I would encourage any American-run fund to examine their investments and seriously consider divesting ... ”

Merkley is backing the Senate’s Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, a bipartisan bill co-led by Rubio, which advocates for sanctions against individuals and companies found to be involved in the violation of human rights in Xinjiang. Of the 17 senators supporting the bill, five — Oregon’s Merkley and Ron Wyden, Rubio, John Cornyn of Texas, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — are from states where public employee pension plans are indirect investors in SenseTime or Megvii. Wyden and Cornyn declined to comment on those financial ties, while a spokesperson for Gillibrand did not respond to a request for comment. The bill’s main Democratic cosponsor, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, also did not respond to a request for comment after BuzzFeed News found that Infinova, a Monmouth Junction, New Jersey–based manufacturer of surveillance cameras, had been supplying security systems with SenseTime software to Xinjiang authorities. Want us to report on more stories like this? Join us as a BuzzFeed News member. A SenseTime spokesperson said the company “was not aware of any application” of its technologies in Xinjiang and said it had “no business” in the region. SenseTime had previously invested in companies in Xinjiang and once held a significant stake in a firm that had collected personal identification data on 2.5 million people, nearly one-third of whom were Uighurs, according to a leaked database. A spokesperson for Megvii declined to discuss the company’s contracts within Xinjiang but said in a statement that it requires clients “not to weaponize our technology and solutions and not to use them for illegal purposes, including the infringement of human rights.” The company did not explain how it enforces this requirement and declined to provide documentation describing it. While US officials have reportedly considered adding Megvii and SenseTime to the list of entities barred from buying parts and components from US companies without government approval, they have yet to act. In a statement to BuzzFeed News, a State Department spokesperson said it has “conducted outreach to U.S. and Chinese companies with business in Xinjiang to urge them to implement human rights safeguards,” but did not specify which companies those were. “We will continue to urge companies that do business in China to undertake human rights due diligence in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and implement safeguards to mitigate the risk that commercial activities are contributing to China’s human rights violations or abuses,” the spokesperson said.

This is a horrific example of how corporations—and government entities—put profit over people. We need stiff penalties for US companies who directly enable human rights violations like this. https://t.co/MXrlad2lJK