BEIJING, May 5 (TMTPOST)— Shenzhen-listed shares of Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. sank by its daily trading limit 10% on Thursday, the first trading day following the Labor Day holiday break, as the world’s largest video surveillance company was reported to face new sanction risk from the United States.

Source: Visual China

The U.S. Treasury Department is mulling to add Hikvision to a Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list , due to the alleged human rights abuses by supplying the Chinese government with cameras used in the repression of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, the autonomous territory in northwestern China, the Financial Times cited people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg’s sources also said White House is considering the blacklist move and added it is unlikely to make a final decision this month.

The news is by no means a further blow to Hikvision, which has been already blacklisted in 2019, as the possible new sanctions threaten its customers from more than 180 countries and regions across the world. Any transaction or trading involved Hikvision with American companies or citizens would be prohibited, and Hikvision’s assets held in the U.S. run the risk of being frozen, if the company were added to the SDN list.

Hikvision responded that it was aware of recent reports and the sanctions under consideration as reported still need to be verified. "Any sanction should be based on credible evidence and due procedure," the company said. "We are looking forward fair and just treatment.”

China firmly opposes the US using human rights and other excuses and abusing national power and domestic law to wantonly suppress Chinese companies, Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affair of China stressed on Thursday’s regular press. Zhao urged the US to take China’s concern seriously and stop the bullying practice of using all sorts of pretexts to sanction and suppress Chinese companies and harm Chinese interests. “The Chinese government will resolutely defend the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies,” Zhao warned.