The UK has decided that Chinese video cameras have no place in their government facilities.
"A review of the existing and potential future security risks associated with the installation of visual surveillance systems on government property concluded that, in light of the threat to the UK and the increasing capability and connectivity of these systems, additional controls are required," he says Oliver Dowden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (the second most senior cabinet minister after the Prime Minister);
“Departments have therefore been directed to stop the installation of such equipment in sensitive locations, produced by Companies which are subject to the national information law of its People's Republic China,” the statement adds.
The government departments have already been sent the order "that they should not connect such latest technology equipment with departmental networks” and asked to consider whether they should remove and replace Chinese video cameras “installed in sensitive locations”.
The order did not name companies at risk, but it has been cited as banning cameras from partly Chinese state-owned CCTV manufacturers Hikvision and Dahua, on the grounds that they have been used as instruments of repression against Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province.
The US has already banned the two companies to sell their products for the same reason.
