"The U.S. government banned Hikvision from government contracts in August 2019, with trade tension between China and the United States as well as security concerns given as reasons by the "New York Times".In October 2019, Hikvision was formally placed under sanctions by the U.S. Government for its role in surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China by its placement on the Entity List of the Department of Commerce.