UK Takes Action Against Chinese Surveillance Cameras

British government agencies were ordered Thursday to stop installing Chinese-made surveillance cameras in “sensitive areas”.

The move comes at a time when the government is cracking down on China and its companies over security concerns. Last week it ordered a Chinese-owned company to sell much of Newport Wafer Fab, the UK’s largest chip maker.

According to campaign group Big Brother Watch, most public institutions in the UK use his CCTV cameras made by Hikvision or Dahua.

In July, a group of 67 parliamentarians and lords called on London to ban the sale and use of surveillance equipment from two of his companies allegedly involved in rights violations against the Uighurs, an ethnic minority in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. asked to The government’s new order did not lead to an outright ban on businesses.

However, it advised Britain against using a “visual surveillance system” made by a company that is required under Chinese law to share information with Beijing’s security services.

Such cameras should not be connected to a government agency’s “core network,” it said, and departments should consider replacements rather than wait for planned upgrades.

A government review concluded that “additional controls are needed given the threat to the UK and the increasing capacity and connectivity of these systems”. Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said in parliament.

“Accordingly, departments have been ordered to stop using such devices in sensitive locations manufactured by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China.”

After one of the company’s cameras caught then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock kissing an aide in June 2021, violating Covid rules, some British individuals The department has already removed his Hikvision equipment. he was forced to resign.