Free Tibet, the United Kingdom based Tibet advocacy and campaigning group, has found that at least three UK government departments are using CCTV cameras made by Hikvision, a Chinese company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and implicated in the oppression of Tibetans and Uyghurs.
Using Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every government department, Free Tibet discovered that the Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Work and Pensions, and Ministry of Justice all make use of Hikvision cameras, and in addition hundreds of these cameras are installed in Jobcentres used by the public every day.
Security concerns about HIkvision include recent revelations that their cameras may be transferring information to computers in China, and the discovery of a massive security flaw allowing remote access to the equipment.
Free Tibet’s investigation also found that the Ministry of Defence had advised the UK Cabinet Office not to use Hikvision equipment. This means that several government departments have ignored the advice of those responsible for keeping the UK safe from outside threats. Neither the Cabinet Office nor the Ministry of Defense provided further details of the advice. Free Tibet can supply details of the FOI responses, including the locations of DWP’s Hikivsion cameras.
Free Tibet’s report continues, saying that Hikvision has been found to be supplying surveillance equipment for use in Tibet and in Uyghur internment camps. Free Tibet says that UK taxpayers’ money is being spent on Hikvision equipment, thus supporting a company that helps create a surveillance state in Tibet and helps them develop technologies like facial recognition that can distinguish between Uyghur and Han Chinese people. Hikvision is 42 percent owned by Chinese state enterprises, effectively making the Chinese government the controlling stakeholder. This means that some of the money made by Hikvision is likely to reach the Chinese government, and that such purchases in turn fund human rights abuses against Tibetans.
Free Tibet is calling on the UK Foreign Secretary to ban Hikvision from the UK and stop funding Chinese government oppression.
John Jones, Campaigns, Policy and Research Manager for Free Tibet, said, “Money spent by the UK government on Hikvision cameras funds the oppression of Tibetan and Uyghur people by the Chinese government. Government departments are ignoring their own experts and putting the people of the UK at risk, while enriching a company that enables the genocidal aims of the Chinese dictatorship.“The Prime Minister and his cabinet must stop allowing China’s economic might to push them into ignoring massive human rights abuses. Hikvision sales must be banned in the UK immediately and its cameras removed as soon as possible.”
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