U.S. hits China’s DJI, others with sanctions over ‘rights abuse’

Companies accused of complicity in oppression of Uighurs

The U.S. government hit dozens of Chinese companies with investment and export restrictions on Thursday, including top drone maker DJI, accusing them of complicity in the oppression of China’s Uighur minority or helping the military, further ratcheting up tensions between the world’s top two economies.

Blaming DJI and seven other tech firms for supporting “the biometric surveillance and tracking” of Uighurs, the U.S. Treasury Department added them to a list of entities suspected of having Chinese military links, barring Americans from trading in their securities.

Separately, the Commerce Department added China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research institutes to a trade blacklist, restricting access to U.S. exports. It said such aid included “purported brain-control weaponry” without defining the technology further.