Letter to Costco and ADI Raises Concerns about Sale of Hikvision and Dahua Products

(Washington)—Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) today released letters to the chief executives of Costco and ADI , asking questions about the ongoing sales of security equipment made by Hikvision and Dahua, PRC-based brands whose products are banned for use by the U.S. Government and implicated in assisting with genocide and other horrific human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

Major competitors of Costco and ADI stopped selling security equipment from these brands citing human rights and ethical sourcing concerns, so the Chairs asked why each continues to market products made by these companies to U.S. schools, businesses, and families. The Chairs also asked ADI why its website still markets Hikvision and Dahua security equipment as “NDAA compliant”, despite Congress banning the use and sale of these products on U.S. military bases in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019.    

The Chairs also asked Costco’s CEO about the company’s seafood supply chain and for any risk assessments the company has done regarding seafood caught by China’s “illegal, unregulated, and unreported” fishing fleet and processed by companies using Uyghur or North Korean labor. The issue of forced labor in the seafood supply chains of major wholesalers, restaurants, and grocery chains was the topic of the recent CECC’s hearing “From Bait to Plate—How Forced Labor in China Taints America’s Seafood Supply Chain.”  After the hearing, the Chairs sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging him to take “immediate actions” to curb seafood imports caught or processed with forced labor in China.   

Follow the hyperlinks to read the signed letters to Costco and ADI.