UANI Impact: Firm Severs Ties With IRGC-Vendor Tiandy

(New York, N.Y.) — UAE-based Middle East Distribution Centre (MEDC) has cut ties with Chinese technology manufacturer Tiandy Technologies Co. Ltd., which reportedly sells surveillance cameras, facial recognition software, “smart” interrogation tables, and spyware to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other security services, following intervention by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).

In communications with MEDC officials, UANI detailed how Tiandy enables the IRGC to carry out human rights abuses, surveillance, and Internet censorship of its own citizens – particularly those Iranians refusing to comply with compulsory hijab laws or otherwise participating in the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution.  

Ultimately, MEDC agreed to take significant actions to sever its business relationship with Tiandy in response to UANI’s concerns, including: 

• Immediately halting all major stock orders from Tiandy;
• Immediately removing all main Tiandy advertisements and gradually removing all Tiandy products from its website;
• Immediately canceling all plans to participate with Tiandy in future trade shows;
• Focusing on liquidating existing stock and preparing MEDC customers for alternative products;
• Setting an exit plan from its relationship with Tiandy, with the goal of ending all business with Tiandy by the end of 2023; and
• Verbally communicating its concerns about Tiandy’s regional policy. 

In recent weeks, Tiandy suspiciously scrubbed its website of its business partners in an apparent effort to obfuscate the companies with which it has established partnerships so it can avoid difficult questions. According to documents obtained by UANI, Tiandy is advising its business partners that the company has “no any [sic] direct business in Iran, Iranian government, or IRGC,” contrary to U.S. government assessments.  

To read UANI’s Business Risk Matrix outlining the risks associated with conducting business with Iranian companies, please click here.