Are Chinese cameras disturbing to observe elections in Kosovo?

Cameras produced by a Chinese company, which was recently sanctioned by the United States of America, will be used at polling stations in Kosovo on February 9th. The Kosovo company that supplied the Central Election Commission with them says there are no security concerns for cameras, which, according to it, are in line with US and Kosovo security requirements.

This year's parliamentary elections in Kosovo will bring a innovation in monitoring the voting process, as there will be surveillance cameras at the polls for the first time.

These cameras were contracted by the Central Election Commission in late 2024 through a tendering process, where the winner came up with the company Besa Security, which offered the price of about 699 thousand euros.

The supply of some 2,500 cameras, which will serve to monitor the locations and witness possible irregularities during the process, was provided in this tender.

Besa Security told Free Europe Radio that, shortly after signing the contract last November, it had ordered these cameras produced by the Chinese company Uniview, which it says is exclusive distribution for Kosovo territory.

Regarding these cameras, there have been local media reports, which, among other things, raise security concerns because since December 2024, the Unitview has been under sanctions from the United States.

Regarding these cameras, there have been local media reports, which, among other things, raise security concerns because since December 2024, the Unitview has been under sanctions from the United States.

In this regard, the Kosovo distributor says products produced by Uniview, and especially those with which the CEC has supplied it, are in line with the US National Protection Authorisation Act (NDAA).

It is important to make a distinction between sanctions imposed on specific entities, and restrictions affecting specific products. Products [with which we have] supplied The CEC does not fall under any restrictions that would hinder their use for civilian or institutional purposes”, said Besa Security's response to the REL.

The NDA is the law that stipulates whether certain equipment is considered dangerous for American national security.

Several Chinese companies, including Hikvision and Dahua, are part of the NDA stop list, but, until now, the Unitview does not figure out part of it.

The CEC has not answered REL questions about the contraction of these cameras.

But, under the terms of the tender, the CEC also mentioned that the cameras should comply with the SAA.

Meanwhile, during the presentation of plans to place cameras in the polls, the CEC had assured that cameras would not affect the privacy of the vote.

“Set up cameras in the polls will be made by fully obtaining the secret of the vote, as they will be placed at the other end of which the voting booths will be located, and under no circumstances could register the voter's preferences note”, said Valmir Elez, KEC spokesman, in April 2024.

Why was the Chinese company sanctioned by the United States?

Sanctions that were imposed on Uniview are part of a broader campaign by the US government to crack down on sanctions Chinese firms producing monitoring technology, due to “impressions on the waters and other Muslim minorities in the western region of China, Shinjiang”.

“Role that the American government says Uniview has had delivery and, in some cases, specific design of surveillance equipment and software that allowed the Communist Party of China to identify and monitor these ethnic groups”, explains Reid Standish, correspondent of China Radio Free Europe in Prague, which focuses on global issues related to China.

The oppression of ethnic groups in Shinjiang began in 2017, and it took off in later years, targeting other Muslim waters and groups in western China, such as ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.

The entire China is heavily monitored and based on cameras and programs of the so-called “Wise City”, but during this period, Shinjiang became one of the world's most supervised”, Standish says.

“The [pressure] campaign led to the creation of a wide camp system in Shinjiang, where people from these ethnic groups gathered and settled in so-called education camps, where they were forced to learn Chinese, sing patriotic songs, teach the doctrine of the Communist Party, and, in many cases, submitted to serious human rights violations<1>, he explains.

Standish adds that “Usington and many Western countries have described this situation as serious human rights violations, while some international organisations have even called ethnic cleansing”.

REL has repeatedly reported on US sanctions against Chinese companies, including Dahua and Hikvision, which also produce surveillance cameras.

A REL investigation in 2022 found that security cameras produced by these two companies are located in many Kosovo institutions, including the Kosovo government building.

Kosovo authorities have not imposed sanctions for importing these equipment.

How safe is Chinese surveillance technology?

Beyond the ethical issues that led to US sanctions, according to Standish, there are technical issues that have been discovered with some Chinese producers, often cited as reasons not to use them in sensitive environments.

“The concerns on data stem in part from the fact that surveillance systems rely on a certain measure on equipment and software equipment from camera maker”, Standish says.

He adds that the final users can set up their [servation] and network storage systems, but the “data is still going through software designed by the manufacturer, and often sent to the company's servers in China through the [computerial] re,”.

There is no evidence or case that these cameras are used for intervention, much less to influence an election. But at a time when election integrity is a major issue in today's democracies, the weaknesses of various brands raised the possibility of external intervention”, Standish points out.

Chinese companies are the world's top surveillance technology suppliers. Their cameras are cheap, easy to use and install, and offer high performance.

Companies like Hikvision and Dahua are partly owned by the Chinese state, while Uniview is a private company, but have participated in Chinese government contracts to oversee minorities in Shinjiang.

So far, the US and Great Britain have put some Chinese technology companies on a blacklist.

However, most European countries have not imposed such bans, but have chosen to remove Chinese cameras from use in government or military institutions.