‘People Won’t Care Until They Feel the Burn’: Australian Speaks Out about CCP Spy Cams

An Australian's story of fighting CCP spy cameras

"Dahua Technology" camera at MTR Kowloon Tong Station in Hong Kong. File photo. Song Bi-lung/The Epoch Times

An Australian supply chain worker based in Melbourne would have forgotten about an email he wrote two years ago if not for the news about the Australian federal government being “riddled with CCP spyware.”

The email was sent to the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), one of Australia’s largest motoring clubs, which offers a range of services, including insurance and roadside assistance.

It was about RACV selling the security cameras of Honeywell, which are essentially products of Dahua, a Chinese company banned by the U.S. government due to national security and human rights concerns.

Accused of posing national security threats and being involved in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s human rights atrocities against Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang, Zhejiang Dahua Technology has been banned by the United Kingdom and the United States in November 2022.

Brad installed the camera in 2018 and was not aware of its connection with Dahua until two years later when the equipment stopped working, and he reached out to the RACV for help.

The Epoch Times has agreed to use only Brad’s first name in the article due to concerns over his security.

The Honeywell app used by Brad. Supplied

The company told him that the original Honeywell app he used on his phone was no longer supported and asked him to download a new app.

“They sent me an app link with something that’s very Chinese to it, something related to that one, so that was when I started to look online,” Brad said.

“I sussed it out online. Honeywell buys Dahua, put on their logo, and sells it to the unsuspecting wider Australian public.”

“I stopped using the app and disconnected the cameras from my modem when I found out.”

The Dahua app RACV asked Brad to download (supplied).

Security Concerns Over CCP

Brad, who studies Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is currently being persecuted in mainland China since 1999, has a strong awareness of the CCP’s surveillance measures.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of five meditative exercises along with teachings based on the core values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Since 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has sought to eradicate the practice in a nationwide campaign involving arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, torture, organ harvesting, and other violent tactics.

Millions have been held in the CCP’s vast detention facility apparatus across China.

He said after his research, he sent a long email to RACV, clarifying his concerns and asking them to confirm the safety of his camera from being used as a surveillance tool by the CCP.

“As uncomfortable and taboo as it is to speak up against communist China, I won’t shy away when things go in a direction as serious as intelligence, privacy, and security threats,” he wrote in an email seen by The Epoch Times.

“The CCP is not known to be a friend when it comes to harvesting information (or human organs, for that matter). CCP is authoritarian, cult-like, and manifests a draconian political system that ‘the state controls individuals,’ including their thoughts and beliefs.”

“In short, CCP and anything related to it are very real threats, not just to Australia, but to the world.”

Falun Gong practitioners in Vienna, Austria, stage a mock demonstration of organ harvesting of imprisoned practitioners in China during a protest against the importing of human organs from China to Austria, on Oct. 1, 2018. Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images

Brad mentioned in his email the federal government’s ban on Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from supplying equipment for Australia’s planned 5G Networks due to national security concerns.

“In communist China, the commercial entities might seem independent, but they all must answer to the CCP, e.g. being asked to release private and confidential information, and that directive coming from the draconian CCP that persecutes all forms of different dissenting voices at home and abroad,” he wrote.

“And some seemingly-commercial organisations are actually fronts for the CCP, e.g. Huawei is related to the PLA, i.e. the military arm of the CCP.

“Therefore, I am indeed disappointed when I heard that RACV is now using apps and equipment from Dahua, a Zhejiang (communist China) based company.”

He suspected profit was the motive behind RACV’s decision.

“I find it hard to believe that the above information that I wrote about isn’t known to your management and the department responsible for purchasing equipment and software from communist China. These are all available on all search engines,” he wrote.

“The situation seems to just be an issue of willing blindness, profit before privacy and security, and complacency.”

He ended the email by noting that if he had known the information two years ago, he would not have installed the security equipment.

A Dahua Technology thermal imaging camera is seen during a demonstration of the camera at an office in San Francisco, Calif., on April 24, 2020. Nathan Frandino/ Reuters

RACV replied to Brad with a concise email confirming that his CCTV system is completely independent of any RACV backend systems but avoided addressing any of his other concerns.

The Epoch Times reached out to RACV and asked if the company is still using Honeywell products but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

While there is a report about Honeywell quietly dropping the Dahua products in 2022, the company also did not reply to The Epoch Times’ inquiry seeking confirmation of this report.

Australian Defence Department to Remove China-Made Cameras

The news of the Australian Defence Department removing China-made cameras reminded Brad of his correspondence two years ago.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles ordered on Feb. 9 to remove all cameras made by Hikvision and Dahua, both partly owned by the CCP in his department.

The move comes after Shadow Minister for Cyber Security & Countering Foreign Interference James Paterson released the findings of a six-month audit of all commonwealth departments.

The Australian Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Sept. 8, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

It’s revealed that almost 1000 Chinese-made surveillance cameras were installed across over 250 sites of Commonwealth departments and agencies, including foreign affairs and defence sites.

In response to Marles’ order, Beijing has accused Australia of “abusing state power.”

“We oppose erroneous practices of over-stretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to discriminate against and suppress Chinese companies,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in a press conference on Feb. 10.

‘People Won’t Care Until They Feel the Burn’

While not surprised by the prevalence of China-made cameras in Australia’s commonwealth, Brad said he thought the government would have already made this move a long time ago.

“I remember there’s news around [former prime minister] Turnbull’s time that they have done so?”

He added that not a lot of people shared his security concerns over China-made products, citing his own experience of talking to everyday Australians.

“I didn’t feel that from anybody. Nobody had any concerns,” he said.

“I think people have this general not-my-business-I-don’t-care attitude until they feel the burn. Usually, it’s like that.”

The Defence Department has been contacted for comment.