ALERT: Blacklisted Chinese Firm Hiring Deep State Operatives!

The world’s largest maker of surveillance equipment has long-established links to China’s military, including conducting a study with Chinese weapons experts and supplying cameras and drones to the country’s air force, according to a report by a surveillance-industry research company.

According to the records, a video surveillance company Hikvision with ties to the Chinese government is working with a former U.S. government official.

In June, Peter Kucik, a former sanctions policy advisor in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, was hired by Mercury Public Affairs, Hikvision’s lobbying firm.

According to IPVM, the Chinese government founded Hikvision and is its “controlling shareholder.”

Hikvision has disputed its place on a Pentagon blacklist of companies with Chinese military ties. The new hire by its D.C. lobbying firm is just the latest aimed at rolling back U.S. government measures that threaten to deal a body blow to its business.

The findings by IPVM shed fresh light on Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., which has disputed as baseless a decision by the U.S. Defense Department last year to place it on a blacklist of companies with alleged ties to China’s armed forces.

According to public documents and online materials found by IPVM, Hikvision sold drones and other accessory equipment to the Chinese air force in 2019 and was considered a top-tier supplier to the nation’s military in 2014. In March, a drone-jamming rifle, emblazoned with a Hikvision logo, was shown on state television being held by a soldier kneeling in rough terrain and testing equipment for use in extreme conditions such as subzero temperatures or high altitudes.

Hikvision’s website also carried a report on how the company’s technology could improve the performance of Chinese missile, tank, and other weapons systems, citing a study done jointly with commanders and weapons experts from the People’s Liberation Army. The study proposed the use of Hikvision cameras to record drills and improve weapons accuracy. The report was taken down from Hikvision’s website for several days this month after The Wall Street Journal contacted the company for comment.

IPVM, an independent research company based in Bethlehem, Pa., that focuses on the surveillance industry, shared its findings with the Journal, which independently corroborated them.

In June, President Joe Biden prohibited U.S. entities from investing in Hikvision and dozens of other Chinese corporations to address “the threat posed by the military-industrial complex of the People’s Republic of China.”

The company is also allegedly linked to the surveillance of Uyghur mosques and detention camps in Xinjiang, Axios reported.

This allegation was denied by Hikvision saying it has not committed “any inappropriate actions in Xinjiang.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that “Hikvision sold drones and other accessory equipment to the Chinese air force in 2019 and was considered a top-tier supplier to the nation’s military in 2014.”

According to the report, footage from state television showed a Chinese soldier holding a drone-jamming weapon with Hikvision’s logo on it.
Kucik registered himself under the Foreign Agents Registration Act this month as a “strategic consultant and regulatory advisor” for Mercury.

Records state that his role includes “strategic consulting, lobbying, public affairs, and government relations, including outreach to U.S. officials.”
Kucik is not the first U.S. official hired by Mercury, according to Axios.

Democratic Connecticut Rep. Toby Moffett was hired by the company in June, Moffett was one of Biden’s advisers during his 2008 presidential bid.

Sen. Barbara also got by the said company, though she distanced herself from the job after facing criticism, Axios reported.

Sources: The Gateway Pundit, IPVM, Axios, The Wall Street Journal