Barbara Boxer ‘deregisters’ as foreign agent for Chinese surveillance company that targeted Uyghurs

Former California Sen. Barbara Boxer raised eyebrows this week after first registering as a foreign agent with the Chinese surveillance company Hikvision, then later “deregistering” Tuesday.

Hikvision was barred by the Commerce Department in 2019 over its involvement in the Chinese government’s suppression of the Uyghurs — an ethnic minority population in the Xinjiang province located in northwest China.

Boxer, who registered with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act Friday, was expected to serve as a “Strategic consultant,” on behalf of the surveillance company for Mercury Public Affairs, a prominent lobbying firm where Boxer was recently named co-chair, the Daily Caller first reported.

While it is not unusual for former politicians to enter the lobbying world and register as foreign agents when working with another government, President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration committee threw a flag on Boxer consulting with Hikvison — whose largest stakeholder is the Chinese government.

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