Chinese cameras in institutions: Where have they been replaced?

Kosovo's government has removed most of the security cameras of the firm Dahua, a Chinese company sanctioned by the United States.

“In the Government building so far has replaced the overwhelming majority of security cameras, including the building's most critical security points”, Government spokesman Kryeziu told Radio Free Europe.

Radio Free Europe had reported on the presence of these cameras at the government facility in early 2022. At the time, the government led by the Vetevendosje Movement had said it would analyse the contracts from the security aspect, since the cameras had been bought earlier by past governance.

According to Kryezius, the replacement of the cameras began at the end of 2022.

“In the process of replacing is also the rest of the remaining (cameries). We're working on this to be done as soon as we can --”, he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Dahua Technology and HikVision have been on the US blacklist since 2019, because, reportedly, their connection with human rights violations in China, respectively, with Beijing's survey of Muslim Christians in the province of Ksinjiang.

In addition to trade sanctions, these and some Chinese companies producing security cameras are considered at risk for use by US institutions.

They are considered not in line with the US National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which determines whether specific equipment is considered dangerous for American national security.

According to what REL has seen from the ground, new cameras located in the government facility are also Chinese firm Uniview.

This company was also included in the US sanctions list in December 2024. However, so far, this company and its products are not calculated to be banned on the basis of regulation UAAA.

Recently, the Central Election Commission made the purchase of over 2 thousand security cameras, before monitoring the process of parliamentary elections that were held on February 9th.

The CEC, too, was supplied with cameras to the Uniview Company.

In the tender file, the CEC had put it on the criteria list and that the cameras would comply with the US SAA.

So far, this institution has not responded to REL questions about what domestic legislation or regulations is based on this requirement, as well as what are the security concerns for products that are forbidden with the SAA.

Why were Chinese companies sanctioned from the United States?

Sanctions against Chinese technology companies began under US President Donald Trump's first mandate, and continued in Joe Biden's subsequent administration.

Washington has particularly targeted Chinese camera-making companies because of their “ol in providing surveillance technology to the Chinese Communist Party”, helping it to prosecute Muslim minorities in China as a toilet.

Reid Standish, Prague Radio Free Europe correspondent who focuses on global issues related to China, says that according to US decisions, these companies are allegedly designing specific equipment and software for monitoring these minorities.

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HikVision and Dahua still present at other institutions

In 2022, REL had reported that cameras of Dahua and HikVision firms were being used as monitoring technology in several other state institutions.

Objects observed by these cameras included the Special Prosecutor, the Ministry of Health and Trade.

The HikVision firm's cameras still continue to be present in all three items until these institutions have so far failed to respond to REL requirements for comment on the issue.

HikVision's cameras previously watched Pristina's main squares, while they have now been replaced by cameras from the Avigillo firm within the motorola Solutions.

Products of this company are produced in Canada and the United States.

The Pristina municipality has not indicated the timing and reason for the replacement of cameras.

In 2022 he was told by the Communists REL that the previous contract with which HikVision cameras were purchased was inherited from the municipality's preliminary leadership and was signed by 2020.

How safe is Chinese surveillance technology?

A number of technical issues found in some Chinese producers are often cited as reasons not to use them in sensitive environments, says Reid Standish.

According to him, the security concerns of this technology are related to the fact that the <x0 surveillance systems rely on some measure on equipment and software producers of”.

This leads to two major concerns. The first is that the system used by some Chinese brands has shown to be more vulnerable than others. The second is that the data in China is subject to Chinese laws, which, according to these laws, allows the Chinese Communist Party to have access and use the data as it wants for national security reasons”, says Standish.

There is still no evidence that this happened, but it is mentioned routinely as a concern”, he adds.

Kosovo Information and Private Agency has told REL that institutions have a commitment to personal data security that is processed through surveillance cameras.

“Institutions should make sure that the equipment is safe and avoid using products that can create safety risks for personal data”, the Agency said.

However, when it comes to security cameras, this agency has not commented on specific firms or US security regulations and how they apply in Kosovo.

Chinese companies are the world's top surveillance technology suppliers. That's because 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. / REL/