A Chinese surveillance-video manufacturer's U.S. subsidiary has enlisted a former Senate sergeant at arms to help overturn the U.S. government's ban on its products.
Drew Willison is lobbying for Hikvision USA on "prohibitions on certain video surveillance equipment in the National Defense Authorization Act and other potential legislation," according to a recent disclosure. The 2019 NDAA banned the federal government from purchasing Hikvision telecommunications and video-surveillance products.
Hikvision USA's parents company, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., is owned by CETHIK Group, a subsidiary of the Chinese-government-owned China Electronics Technology Group.
Since the 2019 NDAA ban, the federal government has come down hard on Hikvision: Near the end of his presidency, Donald Trump banned investments in the company. Last fall, Biden signed into law the bipartisan Secure Equipment Act, which banned the importation and sale of new Hikvision products. Now, for Hikvision's alleged role in Uyghur repression, the Biden administration is weighing adding the company to the U.S. Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List - a designation "usually reserved for countries like North Korea or Iran," according to MIT Technology Review.
Willison began his Hikvision lobbying work in mid-May and is working through his new one-man shop, Elevation Association. Willison served as Senate sergeant at arms from 2014 t0 2015 and later became chief of staff to then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
This isn't Hikvision's first time hiring Washington's well connected. The company has previously shelled out for lobbying work from former Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and David Vitter (R-La.), as well as Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions-policy adviser at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
