"Lawmakers and activists call for action after AP reveals US tech role in China’s surveillance state", 24 September 2025

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Lawmakers and activists across the political spectrum called on American tech firms to stop selling surveillance equipment to Chinese police and for Congress to examine the issue after The Associated Press reported...

“I think eventually we’re going to have to subpoena these people,” Hawley said.

An AP investigation…revealed that U.S. technology companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state. Firms including IBM, Dell, and Cisco sold billions in technology to Chinese police and government agencies, despite repeated warnings that such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious sects and target minorities…

Other lawmakers from both parties urged Congress to beef up export laws to prevent more American technology from being used to fuel human rights abuses abroad…

Civil society groups that work on issues related to Chinese state repression of the Tibetan and Uyghur ethnicities also echoed the call for American tech companies to exit the Chinese market, where their technologies have been used to power surveillance systems…