The government will launch an investigation into a Chinese technology company that had won a tender to install a security system at the Taichung Power Plant, following the firm’s blacklisting by the US, Minister of Economic Affairs Sheng Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday.
New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee asked Shen whether using a facial recognition system designed by Megvii Technology Ltd (曠視科技) at the plant raises national security concerns.
Megvii Technology on Sept. 12 won the tender to install a facial recognition security system at the plant, but was this month blacklisted by the US government for human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.
Shen said he would instruct the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ State-Owned Enterprise Commission to examine the blacklisted firms, and instruct the Information Management Center to review the matter.
The system is used to monitor contractors entering and leaving the power plant, he said, adding that employees of state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電) are not included in it.
The US Department of Commerce on Oct. 7 blacklisted 28 Chinese entities — the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region People’s Government Public Security Bureau, 18 of its subordinate security bureaus and one other subordinate institute, as well as eight companies — for being implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the region.
The other blacklisted companies are: Hikvision Digital Technology Dahua Technology Co (海康威視), iFlytek Co (科大訊飛), Sense Time Group Ltd (商湯科技), Meiya Pico Information Co (美亞柏科信息), Yixin Science and Technology Co (溢鑫科創) and Yitu Technologies (依圖科技).
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