A Chinese company backed by American pension fund money and built by one of the world's premier private equity firms publicly touted its ties to China's surveillance apparatus. Is U.S. outbound investment in trouble?
Illustration by Sam Ward
In March 2020, a town 30 miles northeast of Shanghai’s city center was scrambling to respond to the unfolding pandemic. In its effort to control the spread of Covid-19, the town of Shuxin announced that the government would be implementing a new technology in its government buildings: The “CUE All-in-One Machine.”
A sleek black device with a camera at eye level, a wide square screen in the middle and two skinny poles connected to wheels at the bottom, the All-in-One Machine uses facial recognition technology and thermal imaging to identify individuals who are walking by and take their temperature. It was produced by Cue Group, a China-based portfolio company held by one of the world’s biggest financial services firms, the American private equity giant KKR & Company.
The CUE All-in-One Machine. Credit: Cue Group
But the device’s utility goes far beyond pandemic prevention. As Cue’s head of new retail products made clear during the 2020 announcement i
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