The United States blacklists Chinese digital identity champions

Several companies operating in facial recognition, biometrics, and digital identity fields have been added to the list of contractors for Beijing's military.

At the beginning of 2025, the US Department of Defense updated its list of “Chinese military companies,” adding specialists in digital identity and biometrics. This list now includes 134 entities acting as subcontractors for the Chinese military while operating in the United States.

Being blacklisted does not carry any formal administrative consequences but tends to deter foreign investments, which has already caused their stock market value to plummet. In 2020, at the end of his first presidential term, Donald Trump prohibited any US funding for organizations appearing on this list.

Specifically, the US Department of Defense added the following Chinese specialists in digital identity, biometrics, and/or facial recognition:

Cloudwalk, Yitu Technology, and SenseTime, three providers of facial recognition software, with SenseTime pivoting toward generative AI;
Dahua Technology and Hikvision, two developers of biometric surveillance systems allegedly used in the repression of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang;
Aisino Corporation, a specialist in biometric identity document production;
Huawei and Tencent, two giants: the former investing in China’s national digital identity initiatives, the latter in biometrics and digital payment certification.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately contested the legitimacy of this list, stating that it would take “all necessary measures to firmly defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.”