Amazon has purchased cameras designed to measure the temperature of its workers from a Chinese company that was blacklisted by the United States for helping China commit human rights violations against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, according to Reuters.
China-based Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. sent 1,500 cameras to Amazon in April in a deal worth nearly $10 million, according to sources.
"It's troubling to learn that well-known American companies are continuing to turn a blind eye to companies that are fueling the Chinese Communist party's brutal treatment of so many of their own people," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who works on the House foreign affairs committee, told Reuters.
Amazon declined to confirm whether it bought cameras from Dahua but said the company's product complied with local, state, and national laws. Amazon added the products were to "support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities."
Dahua is one of the world's largest surveillance camera manufacturers and said it is dedicated "to mitigating the spread of the COVID-19" through technology that detects "abnormal elevated skin temperature with high accuracy," in a statement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautioned the country is running low on temperature-reading devices. The agency said it would not push back during the coronavirus pandemic against the use of thermal cameras that did not have its regulatory approval.
Flir Systems is the top U.S.-based maker, but the company is backlogged up to two weeks, providing products exclusively for hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
EnterActive Networks CEO Evan Steiner sells surveillance equipment from various California suppliers. He said many U.S. customers are buying the product, regardless of the blacklist.
"You're seeing a lot of companies doing everything that they possibly can preemptively to prepare for their workforce coming back," Steiner said.
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