China: Hikvision Report Said Its Contracts Targeted Uyghurs

Improve the News Foundation -

Facts

  • New details from an internal review of Hikvision’s contracts with police agencies reveal that the Chinese surveillance giant has known since at least 2020 that its Xinjiang contracts reportedly included language about targeting Uyghurs as a group.1
  • The company has repeatedly denied that it is complicit in alleged human rights abuses of Uyghurs by the Chinese government, however, documents show that Hikvision cameras have been installed in public spaces across Xinjiang and in mass detention facilities.1
  • Hikvision’s footage has led to the detention of Uyghurs, and it has advertised biometric surveillance technology that can track ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, though in 2020 the company stated its products no longer offer that capability.1
  • Pierre-Richard Prosper, the attorney hired by Hikvision to investigate its Xinjiang activities, admitted the police contracts targeted Uyghurs, but he did not address allegations that the contracts are ongoing.2
  • Prosper gave a talk on human rights compliance to Hikvision’s Australian company partners at a conference last month. He said the internal investigation assessed the company's role in human rights abuses, adding that the most concerning contract involved the so-called 'Moyu Project,' which allegedly targeted Uyghurs.1
  • The company began its review in 2019 after a US law blocked Hikvision, along with four other Chinese firms, as a possible security threat. Prosper, a former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues made two trips to China as part of a review to “better protect” human rights.3

Sources: 1Axios, 2Ipvm and 3Reuters.

Narratives

  • Anti-China narrative, as provided by Ipvm. Hikvision is clearly complicit in the Chinese government’s targeting of Uyghurs and other minority groups, and its internal investigation all but admits this fact. While the surveillance giants' lawyers try to spin the company’s role in grotesque human rights abuses, it cannot escape the fact that its cameras and technology led to the detention of thousands of people. Hikvision is an accomplice of atrocities against the Uyghur people.
  • Pro-China narrative, as provided by Global times. US and Western nations continue to attack and defame Chinese technology on xenophobic 'National Security' grounds. However, this move will only backfire in the global marketplace, and will also impact global supply chains. PRC technology firms will only continue to thrive, and Beijing supports responsible science and technology with the highest ethics.