UK Surveillance Tsar Voices Concern Over Chinese Equipment

People visit a Hikvision booth at the security exhibition in Shanghai, China, on May 24, 2019. Aly Song/Reuters

The UK’s surveillance watchdog said a timeline should be set up to assess the risks of using Chinese-made equipment and to remove or replace them if appropriate.

In an interview published on Monday in The Times of London, Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner Fraser Sampson likened the widespread use of Chinese cameras and drones to “digital asbestos,” saying the equipment had previously been installed widely because “they were cheap and got the job done,” but knowing “they bring significant risk,” the UK should “probably stop installing any more until we understand the depth and breadth of those risks.”

“And then we should set up a timeline for assessment and, if appropriate, removal or replacement,” he told the publication.

It comes after experts warned the UK government not to trust the pledge from social media giant TikTok that it won’t share UK user data with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Human Rights and Security Concerns

According to an analysis by Comparitech, London is the most surveilled city in the Western world, after cities in China, a few cities in India, and Singapore, Moscow, and Baghdad.

British civil liberties group Big Brother Watch said more than 60 percent of the UK’s public bodies were using cameras from Hikvision or Dahua, both world leading security camera manufacturers controlled by the Chinese communist regime.

Both firms are known to supply surveillance equipment that has been used to target Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region and have been blacklisted in the United States since 2019 for this reason.

Hikvision cameras in an electronic mall in Beijing on May 24, 2019. Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images

According to security and surveillance industry research group IPVM, Hikvision had also activated alarms that would be triggered by protests, “religion,” and “Falun Gong”—a popular spiritual discipline that has been targeted by the Chinese regime for eradication since 1999.

There are also security concerns around the Chinese companies as all Chinese organisations and citizens are required by law to “support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”

In 2021, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission declared that Hikvision and Dahua, along with Huawei, ZTE, and Hytera Communications Corp., pose a threat to U.S. national security.

Hikvision and Dahua has previously denied allegations of security risks and involvement in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Commissioner Questions Use of Chinese Equipment

Sampson, who previously urged the UK government to ban Hikvision equipment, revealed on Nov. 14 that at least a third of British polices forces which responded to his survey had confirmed they were using cameras from the Chinese manufacturer.

The UK government said on Nov. 24 that it had banned government estates from installing new Chinese cameras on sensitive sites.

According to The Times of London, Sampson said many of the police forces that have Hikvision cameras had reached out to ask what was a sensitive site.

The commissioner questioned whether Britons would want to be watched by “untrusted companies and equipment” at other public areas such as the Underground, airports, places of worship, or polling stations.

He also highlighted the use of Chinese made drones in local policing, saying they are “questions we need to ask.”

Sampson’s survey found that 26 of the 28 police forces using drones were using equipment from DJI, a privately-owned company in China, according to its website.

The UK government’s ban on installing new Chinese cameras also included asking departments to replace existing cameras, but didn’t set out a timeline or mandate their replacement.

The House of Lords last month adopted an amendment to the Procurement Bill the compels the government to publish a timeline for the removal of physical technology or surveillance equipment from the government’s procurement supply chain where there is established evidence that a provider has been involved in modern slavery, genocide, or crimes against humanity.

The text did not name any particular country or company, but Lord Alton of Liverpool, who proposed the legislation, said it’s about committing the government to the removal of all Hikvision and Dahua cameras from the public sector supply.

If Alton’s proposal becomes law, the government would have to publish a removal timeline within six months.

The bill is set to commence its process in the House of Commons when MPs return on Jan. 9. It’s unclear if the government intends to amend or remove the provision that would accelerate the replacement of Chinese cameras.