Mubasher: Washington is weighing depriving as many as five Chinese firms, including global pioneers in video surveillance systems, from access to US technology, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

The US administration is deliberating whether to include Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Zhejiang Dahua Technology, and a handful of other unnamed firms to a blacklist that blocks them from US components or software, the media outlet cited sources familiar with the matter

Such a move could escalate tensions with China further, after the White House last week banned Huawei from access to US technology, a move that hit shares in US chipmakers, including Qualcomm and Intel.

The ban on the Chinese giant also threatened to derail global economic growth and disrupt the rollout of fifth-generation (5G) networks.

The deliberations came on the back of worries that the cameras, which are produced by both companies and featuring facial recognition capabilities, could be used for espionage purposes, the sources said.

In addition, the US administration is also concerned about their role in helping the Chinese government repressing Uighurs in the nation’s west, they added.

Both Hikvision and Dahua have been accused of facilitating the persecution of the Uighur minority in the western region of Xinjiang.