Moolenaar, Krishnamoorthi Express Concern About Potential Evasion of FCC Restrictions by Major PRC Video Surveillance Equipment Manufacturer

Yesterday, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission concerning a recent transaction involving Zhejiang Dahua Technology (Dahua), a leading video surveillance equipment manufacturer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Dahua, which is included on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List because of its role in the CCP’s ongoing genocide in Xinjiang, also appears on the Department of Defense’s list of “Chinese military companies”. Recently, the FCC implemented rules to prohibit Dahua cameras from being sold in the United States “for the purpose of public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes.”

Chairman Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi and write to Chairwoman Rosenworcel concerning reports that Dahua may have recently entered into a deal to avoid restrictions imposed by the FCC, agreeing to sell Dahua Technology USA to a company named Luminys Systems, a unit of Foxlink.

The Chairman and Ranking Member write, “However, publicly available information about the deal suggests Dahua’s firmware and software will still be developed in, and therefore controlled by, the PRC. Outside analysts have noted that they “expect Dahua to use Foxlink . . . [to] claim that they no longer manufacture or produce these products. And the argument will then become, if they no longer produce those products, that US government regulations such as the FCC new device authorization or NDAA government bans can no longer be applied.”

They request 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.”

Read the lawmakers' letter HERE.