UK Government to Publish Plans for Removing Chinese Surveillance Cameras

Hikvision surveillance cameras outside the Hikvision headquarters in Hangzhou, in east China's Zhejiang province, on May 22, 2019. STR/AFP via Getty Images

The UK government has promised to publish a timeline for the removal of Chinese surveillance equipment from its sensitive sites after facing repeated pressure from MPs and Peers.

Ministers will also get powers to ban risky suppliers from competing for contracts in sensitive sectors, with a dedicated unit assessing the suppliers that may pose national security risks.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the Cabinet Office said Whitehall is “committing to publish a timeline for the removal of surveillance equipment produced by companies subject to China’s National Intelligence Law from sensitive central government sites.”

The promise was announced with new measures to strengthen the Procurement Bill. It’s expected to “provide the necessary reassurance” that departments are removing such equipment, the cabinet said.

The use of Chinese surveillance cameras came under increased scrutiny last year after research found cameras made by Chinese firms Hikvision and Dahua were likely being used by 60 percent of public bodies in the UK, including government departments, local authorities, schools, universities, hospitals, and police forces.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday earlier this year found that cameras from the two firms were also in use in some British army bases.

A Dahua thermal camera takes a man's temperature during a demonstration of the technology in San Francisco, Calif., United States on April 24, 2020. Lewis Surveillance/Handout via REUTERS

Some cyber experts have been raising alarms over security vulnerabilities found in Hikvision and Dahua cameras. There are also concerns around sensitive data being handed to the Chinese Communist regimes, as the country’s national intelligence law requires all organisations and citizens are required to “support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”

In November 2022, the UK government banned the installation of new surveillance equipment from China on sensitive government sites. But Lord Alton of Liverpool has warned that the process could take too long.

A group of 27 cross-party MPs, including former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Home Secretary Priti Patel, Defence Committee Chair Tobias Ellwood, and Standards Committee Chair Sir Chris Bryant, have proposed an amendment (pdf) to the Procurement Bill, calling on the government to remove Chinese surveillance equipment from the UK’s public procurement supply chain and publish a timeline for it within six months after the bill passes into law.

Reacting to the government’s announcement on Twitter, Duncan Smith said it’s “not perfect but it does reference companies subject to the National Security Law of China.”

“There is still more to do but I remain cautiously optimistic,” he added.

Emily Taylor, CEO of Oxford Information Labs, is sceptical of the Chinese camera ban on security grounds.

“Now we are saying, look at the flag of the manufacturer, and that will tell you whether the device is secure,” she told the Financial Times.

“That is a ridiculous move, because if you look into any tech supply chains, you will find China somewhere, so where will you stop?”

Human Rights Concerns

Concerns over the two Chinese surveillance giants go beyond security considerations.

Both firms, which are ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, are known to supply surveillance equipment that has been used to target Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.

They have both been blacklisted by the U.S. Trump administration over their alleged roles in human rights violations.

A perimeter fence surrounds a forced reeducation centre in Dabancheng, Xinjiang region, China, on Sept. 4, 2018. Thomas Peter/Reuters

The companies previously denied being complicit in the human rights abuses in Xinjiang that a number of legislatures have called “genocide,” but Conor Healy, director of government research at security and surveillance industry research group IPVM, previously told The Epoch Times that while other suppliers may be able to argue they don’t know how their products are being used, it’s “not at all an exaggeration to say that Hikvision and Dahua are themselves directly responsible for the extraordinary scale of what has happened in Xinjiang.”

He described how “custom-built sophisticated Hikvision technology” has been used in a concentration camp, adding, “the idea that Hikvision has no idea how these products are being used [is] utterly absurd.”

In December last year IPVM also published a report, alleging Hikvision had activated alarms targeting protesters and adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that teaches the doctrine of “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.”

National Security Unit

The government also announced plans to establish a National Security Unit for Procurement. The unit, embedded in the Cabinet Office, will “investigate suppliers who may pose a risk to national security, and assess whether companies should be barred from public procurements.”

Ministers will also get powers to ban suppliers from bidding on certain sectors, such as defence and national security-related areas, while allowing them to win contracts in other sectors.

Jeremy Quin, minister for the Cabinet Office and paymaster general, said the measures will “protect our sensitive sectors from companies which could threaten national security and are a firm deterrence to hostile actors who wish to do Britain harm.”

It’s a concession to amendments proposed by MPs led by Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Alicia Kearns, that would require the government to make a list of “high-risk” suppliers and appoint a watchdog to check the list.

Kearns told The Times of London she’s “delighted the government has listened and acted” upon her push to “put national security at the heart of the Procurement Bill.”

“From local councils to power plants, and security bodies like GCHQ, we must make sure hostile states cannot embed state-subsidised hostile technologies into our lives which capture and exfiltrate our data to the Chinese Communist Party and other hostile states and actors,” she said.

Hikvision and Dahua didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ requests for comment.