 It’s hard to believe we have to write this. In 2025, after years of warnings about Chinese surveillance threats, the FBI is still certifying biometric surveillance devices made by Chinese Communist Party–linked companies – including Hikvision, a firm already sanctioned for human rights abuses and banned from receiving U.S. federal contracts. Yes, that Hikvision. According to a bipartisan letter released this week by the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, the FBI maintains a Certified Products List that includes devices from 32 Chinese companies, several with ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. These certifications effectively offer a “stamp of approval” to products that not only could pose a risk to American privacy but are manufactured by companies blacklisted by other parts of the U.S. government. Let that sink in: A company banned under federal law from receiving government contracts due to national security risks is, at the same time, having its surveillance gear certified as safe and trustworthy – by the FBI. This jaw-dropping contradiction was called out in a forceful letter from Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). The lawmakers warned FBI Director Kash Patel that including these products on the agency’s certification list “sends a dangerous signal” to government buyers and private entities alike, potentially encouraging wider adoption of Chinese-made surveillance tech. They’re absolutely right. Hikvision, to name just one example, was placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019 for its role in enabling the Chinese government’s mass surveillance and oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. It has since been sanctioned under multiple federal authorities, including Executive Order 13959 for its ties to the Chinese military. And yet today, its biometric gear can still carry an FBI certification label? The American people deserve to know: How did we get here? Who in government is asleep at the switch? Civil liberties groups have long warned about the quiet spread of foreign surveillance technologies, particularly those from authoritarian regimes, into American infrastructure – both public and private. The fact that U.S. law enforcement agencies are facilitating that spread through outdated or unvetted certification programs is nothing short of alarming. And it raises troubling questions: Does the FBI have a robust vetting process for foreign vendors? Are they coordinating with other federal agencies to ensure consistency in national security policy? Or are we witnessing another example of institutional inertia allowing critical lapses in judgment? We applaud Reps. Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi for sounding the alarm. It should not take congressional intervention for the FBI to apply common sense to its own certification processes. It’s time for the FBI to get serious about technological due diligence. When it comes to Americans’ privacy and national security, there is no room for double standards. Comments are closed.
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