On Tuesday (Jan. 12), several U.S. media outlets reported that former California Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) had registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent to provide services to the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese surveillance equipment giant Hikvision.
The Daily Caller, which first reported the news, said Boxer’s latest information was first disclosed in documents filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agent Registration Act; moreover, the documents show that Boxer made a $500 contribution to Joe Biden’s inaugural committee late last month.
Mercury Public Affairs, a consulting firm, is stepping up Hikvision’s advocacy efforts. The firm registered with the Justice Department on Friday (8), disclosing that Berkshire is a foreign agent providing “strategic advisory services” to Hikvision’s U.S. subsidiaries. Boxer also serves as co-chair of the consulting firm’s Los Angeles office.
In 2019, the Trump administration banned Hikvision from doing business with U.S. companies without a U.S. government permit for allegedly participating in a crackdown on Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, where Hikvision’s cameras were installed in internment camps.
In 2020, the U.S. accused Hikvision of having ties to the Chinese Communist military and banned U.S. companies from investing in Hikvision. Hikvision’s controlling shareholder is China Electronics Technology Group, a Communist Party state-owned enterprise.
I was asked to provide strategic advice to help a company comply with U.S. law in a more responsible and humane manner, in spirit and in letter, and this was an opportunity – to make things better while helping to protect and create American jobs,” Berkser told online media outlet Axios. “
However, on Tuesday afternoon, Berkser said to the public, “Because of the strong reaction my registration as an agent has generated and my continued involvement would be a distraction, I have decided that I will no longer register as an agent.”
Berkser made a personal contribution of $500 to the Biden inaugural committee last month. After media reports, the Biden Inaugural Committee returned this donation from Barbara Boxer, stating that they do not accept donations from registered foreign proxies and that the donation was a personal wish, not a request from the Inaugural Committee.
Boxer, a Democrat, has worked with Biden in the Senate for more than 20 years and supported him during the 2020 presidential campaign. Berkser is the second former U.S. senator to be invited by Hikvision to serve as a registered agent. The other is David Vitter, a Republican who represented Louisiana until 2017.
Hikvision declined to comment on the matter.
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