From the Daily Caller
Former California Sen. Barbara Boxer has registered as a foreign agent for Hikvision USA, the American subsidiary of a Chinese surveillance company that has been blacklisted by the U.S. government.
Boxer, a Democrat, registered the work through Mercury Public Affairs, the prominent lobbying firm that she joined as a consultant early last year.
Boxer’s registration form, filed through the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, says she will be “providing strategic counsel” to Hikvision, which produces surveillance equipment for the Chinese government and Chinese military.
The Trump administration has cracked down on investments in firms linked to the Chinese government, including Hikvision and Huawei.
The Commerce Department added Hikvision to a trade blacklist on Oct. 8, 2019, for “repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance” of Muslim Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province.
Hikvision, in which the Chinese government holds a 42% stake, also produces many of the cameras used to monitor U.S. military bases, streets and homes, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 12, 2017. (RELATED: Chinese Cameras Monitor US Bases, Streets, Homes)
Boxer’s work on the Hikvision account for Mercury could signal that the lobbying firm, which was founded by former Republican Rep. Vin Weber, wants to use a prominent Democrat for more of its government outreach.
