This announcement comes one week after the listing was pulled due to the ban on Americans investing in the company.
Washington accused SenseTime, with a particular focus on ethnic Uyghurs, of creating facial recognition software that can identify people’s ethnicity.
The shares of the company are scheduled to trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from 30 December.
According to regulatory filings, SenseTime has maintained its goal of selling 1.5 million shares in the initial public offer (IPO) at HK$3.85(PS0.37; $0.49), and $HK3.99 per share. The final price will be announced on Thursday.
After the US Treasury Department placed SenseTime onto a list of Chinese military-industrial complex businesses, which prohibits Americans from investing in certain companies, the planned listing was delayed.
Monday’s statement by SenseTime was a repeat of its denial of the US government’s claims: “Our products and services are designed for civilian and business uses, and not military applications.”
According to the company, Washington’s ban on investment did not pose any problems for its business operations. However, it could have an impact on its ability raise funds.
Tensions between the US and China
This listing is taking place against the backdrop tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The US Congress passed a bill last week that required companies to prove that products imported from China’s Xinjiang area were not made with forced labour.
China has been accused by the United States of genocide for its suppression of the Uyghur majority.
Last week, the US also placed additional restrictions on DJI (a Chinese drone maker) and seven other Chinese companies.
The Treasury Department placed the companies on an exclusion list for investment, prohibiting US citizens from purchasing or selling shares.
The US announced earlier this month that it would not send diplomats to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics. This was due to concerns over China’s human rights record.
The diplomatic boycott has also been adopted by Canada and the UK.
UN experts and human rights organizations claim that more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs, were detained in recent years at a large number of camps in China’s far west region of Xinjiang.
Foreign parliaments and lawmakers have called the Uyghur treatment genocide. They cited evidence of forced sterilizations and deaths in the camps. China refutes these claims, claiming that Uyghur population growth rates exceed the national average.
China denies all allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang. It says its system of “reeducation” camps is there to fight separatism in the region and Islamist militancy.
