A problematic partnership between a Chinese firm implicated in human rights abuses and a Government-backed Kiwi tech start-up has ended.
Auckland robotics company Rocos Global says it has been bought by a US drone company and no longer has financial links to China’s iFlytek, a firm blacklisted by the US Government over its involvement in the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
The acquisition partially solves an embarrassing problem for the Government, which was a co-investor in Rocos alongside iFlytek.
IFlytek, which is part-owned by the Chinese government, has been shown to have collaborated with security agencies to collect voice samples from the Uyghur population.
Its role first came to light in 2017 when Human Rights Watch used internal documents to prove iFlytek’s technology was being used in Xinjiang, along with helping China’s Ministry of Public Security build a national voice print database.
Stuff Circuit investigated the relationship between iFlytek and Rocos in a documentary detailing the fears of New Zealand Uyghurs for family and friends in Xinjiang and inaction by the Government to acknowledge the human rights violations.
The investigation found Rocos and another promising tech start-up, LearnCoach, received seed funding from the government-owned New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP). Most of the investment was approved after iFlytek was blacklisted by the US government.
Members of the Uyghur community were shocked by the Government investments alongside iFlytek, with one person saying “at the government level and at company level”, New Zealand was “turning a blind eye” to the atrocities.
The acquisition of Rocos by the American company, DroneDeploy, solves one problem for the Government but another remains: it still holds a small shareholding in LearnCoach, which also received significant investment from iFlytek and planned to expand operations into the Chinese market.
LearnCoach has not responded to repeated requests for comment on its partnership with iFlytek since saying in March that it was not aware of the allegations against iFlytek when accepting millions of dollars from the company.
Following the Circuit investigation in March 2021, the Government ordered a review of the investments made in Rocos and LearnCoach by NZCGP.
The fund found they met their policy guidelines for responsible investing at the time, but the guidelines then changed and under the new policy there was a potential conflict in the Rocos and LearnCoach investments.
In May parliament declared that ‘’severe human rights abuses’’ were happening in Xinjiang.
iFlytek pumped millions of dollars into the companies through an investment vehicle set up by business incubator The Icehouse, which receives government support via Callaghan Innovation.
Rocos had refused to comment on the partnership with iFlytek beyond saying it was ‘’no longer involved in any projects’’ together.
Almost six months after the investigation, a Rocos spokeswoman confirmed the sale to DroneDeploy meant that iFlytek “no longer owns any shareholding directly or indirectly in Rocos nor in DroneDeploy”.
