Washington Imposes Sanctions on Chinese Companies That Sold Satellite Images to Iran

The United States has imposed sanctions on a number of Chinese satellite system operators for selling satellite images to Iran.

The US Department of State reported this on its website.

Meentropy Technology (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd (MizarVision), a company specializing in geospatial intelligence, was added to the sanctions list.

According to the US government, the company published images from open sources that detailed US military activities during operations Epic Fury and The Earth Eye (TEE), and also sold satellite imagery to Iran.

Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. (Chang Guang) was also sanctioned. It is accused of collecting satellite imagery of US and allied military facilities to fulfill requests from Iran during Operation Epic Fury.

In addition, according to US information, Chang Guang previously provided satellite imagery to the Yemeni Houthi group.

As early as the beginning of April, it became known that Planet Labs and a number of other satellite data operators had suspended the sale of imagery of Iran and the Middle East in general, citing a request from Washington.

The request was made for “security reasons.” In this regard, Planet Labs announced a voluntary suspension of the publication of images over the relevant territory for an indefinite period, until the conflict ends, and a transition to a “controlled distribution” model for content that does not pose a security threat.

The restrictions apply to data collected starting March 9. Thus, the company has significantly strengthened the previous measures introduced in March, when a 14-day delay was imposed before adding images of Iran to the archive. This decision was explained by the need to prevent the use of materials by “hostile actors” and to strike a balance between security and transparency.