Chairman John Moolenaar and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party have raised concerns regarding a transaction involving Zhejiang Dahua Technology, a prominent video surveillance equipment manufacturer from China. They addressed their concerns in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
Dahua is listed by the Department of Commerce due to its involvement in activities linked to human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The company also appears on the Department of Defense's list of "Chinese military companies." Recently, the FCC implemented rules preventing Dahua cameras from being sold in the U.S. for public safety, government facility security, critical infrastructure surveillance, and other national security purposes.
Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi expressed concern over reports that Dahua may have struck a deal to bypass these FCC restrictions by selling Dahua Technology USA to Luminys Systems, a unit of Foxlink. They stated, "However, publicly available information about the deal suggests Dahua’s firmware and software will still be developed in, and therefore controlled by, the PRC."
Analysts speculate that Dahua might use Foxlink to claim they no longer produce these products directly. This could lead to arguments that U.S. regulations such as FCC device authorization or NDAA bans are no longer applicable.
The lawmakers requested that the FCC "examine this transaction and brief Select Committee staff regarding the possibility that it may be an effort to circumvent statutory restrictions on Dahua cameras in the U.S., without addressing the underlying national security risks such restrictions seek to remedy."
