NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO--Amazon.com Inc has bought cameras to take temperatures of workers during the coronavirus pandemic from a firm the United States blacklisted over allegations it helped China detain and monitor Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
China's Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co Ltd shipped 1,500 cameras to Amazon this month in a deal valued at close to $10 million, one of the people said. At least 500 systems from Dahua, the blacklisted firm, are for Amazon's use in the United States, another person said.
The Amazon procurement, which has not been previously reported, is legal because the rules control U.S. government contract awards and exports to blacklisted firms, but they do not stop sales to the private sector.
However, the United States "considers that transactions of any nature with listed entities carry a 'red flag' and recommends that U.S. companies proceed with caution," according to the Bureau of Industry and Security's website. Dahua has disputed the designation, and Beijing has denied mistreatment of the minority groups.
The deal comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of a shortage of temperature-reading devices and said it wouldn't halt certain pandemic uses of thermal cameras that lack the agency's regulatory approval. Top U.S.-based maker FLIR Systems Inc has faced an up to weeks-long order backlog, forcing it to prioritize products for hospitals and other critical facilities.
Amazon declined to confirm its purchase from Dahua, but said its hardware complied with national, state and local law, and its temperature checks were to "support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities."
The company added it was implementing thermal imagers from "multiple" manufacturers, which it declined to name. These vendors include Infrared Cameras Inc, which Reuters previously reported, and FLIR, according to employees at Amazon-owned Whole Foods who saw the deployment. FLIR declined to comment on its customers.
Senator Marco Rubio, a critic of China's policies in the country's Xinjiang region, where Uighers and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps, said Dahua equipment represented a "massive security risk" to companies and the United States.
“It is yet another example of why we must begin rebuilding America's domestic manufacturing capabilities and end our dangerous over-reliance on China," he said in response to the news.
Dahua, one of the biggest surveillance camera manufacturers globally, said it does not discuss customer engagements and it adheres to applicable laws. Dahua is committed "to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19" through technology that detects "abnormal elevated skin temperature — with high accuracy," it said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, which maintains the blacklist, declined comment. The FDA said it would use discretion when enforcing regulations during the public health crisis as long as thermal systems lacking compliance posed no "undue risk" and secondary evaluations confirmed fevers.
