EU taps Chinese technology linked to Muslim internment camps in Xinjiang
Two EU institutions are using technology produced by China's Hikvision, a firm that has been accused of providing surveillance equipment to Muslim internment camps in the country's northwest Xinjiang province.
Hikvision describes itself as "the world's leading
video surveillance products supplier."
The Chinese tech giant has its European base in the
Netherlands and has not been subject to any EU sanctions or blacklist measures.
Officials at the European Parliament and the European
Commission acquired the company's thermal imaging cameras as part of the fight
against the spread of the new coronavirus.
The gadgets can detect a high temperature or fever, which is
a common symptom of COVID-19.
Anyone with a temperature of more than 37.7°C (99.86°F) is
denied entry.
Ministers, parliamentarians, senior diplomats, and staffers
are asked to briefly stare into one of Hikvision's cameras as soon as they
enter the buildings in question.
Many will have been unaware they will come face to face with
a firm accused of contributing to human rights abuses in China.
US President Donald Trump's administration decided to
blacklist the Chinese company in October last year.
Washington added Hikvision to what is known as the US Entity
List, a register of companies believed to pose a threat to national security or
US foreign policy interests.
The move bans American companies from doing business with
the firm without the government's approval.
In return, Hikvision is effectively barred from buying
American products or software.
The Trump administration says the company has been
"implicated in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass
arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs,
and other members of Muslim minority groups."
The US also accuses the company of being linked to the
Chinese military, a charge the tech giant denies.
European Parliament, Commission turn to Hikvision
The allegations surrounding Hikvision's business dealings in
Xinjiang are in the public domain.
Yet staff at the EU institutions acquired the company's
thermographic cameras when they brought in new coronavirus safety measures to
fight the pandemic.
The cameras have been placed at entrances throughout the
European Parliament.
A DW journalist also saw similar Hikvision equipment
installed at the European Commission's main offices, the Berlaymont and Charlemagne
buildings, in the heart of the Belgian capital's European quarter.
Two staffers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
EU's executive arm will bring in more thermal screening hardware at other
offices in the Belgian capital. The Commission has some 60 buildings in
Brussels.
A European Commission spokesperson, however, told DW that
Hikvision equipment will not be used for the rest of the buildings.
Hikvision has faced repeated accusations over its alleged
links to brutal "re-education camps" in Xinjiang.
A leaked German Foreign Ministry report, obtained by DW in
January of this year, said an estimated 1 million Uighurs in China are being
detained without trial.
Ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority
groups are also being imprisoned, the report said.
In July this year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called
the detention centers "concentration camps" — a term disputed by
Beijing.
These allegations were put to Hikvision, in which the
Chinese government holds a 40% controlling stake via the state-owned China
Electronics Technology Group Corporation.
A Hikvision spokesperson, in an emailed statement to DW,
said: "Hikvision takes all reports of human rights very seriously and
recognizes our responsibility for protecting people. We have been engaging with
governments globally to clarify misunderstandings about the company and address
their concerns."
Hikvision, however, did not comment on DW's specific questions
on the company's reported connection to the detention centers and other
security contracts with authorities in Xinjiang.
A January 2020 report by the ethics council for the
Norwegian government's pension fund said Hikvision signed five security and
surveillance contracts in 2017 with the public authorities in Xinjiang worth
more than €230 million ($273 million).
They included tenders for surveillance technology at
internment camps, the report said.
It described another contract as providing "a network
of around 35,000 cameras to monitor schools, streets and offices" and the
"installation of facial recognition cameras at 967 mosques."
The ethics council's report recommended divesting from the
company due to "an unacceptable risk that Hikvision, through its
operations in Xinjiang, is contributing to serious human rights abuses."
Last month, Norges Bank, which manages the investments, said
“the company is no longer in the fund's portfolio."
Hikvision has said in the past that it has no access to any
data processed by its hardware and no information is sent to Beijing.
DW reported in February how technology is used to subject
the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to draconian methods of tracking and
arrest.
EU officials' use of Hikvision technology seems to be at
odds with the bloc's own policy goals, given that it has been a repeated critic
of China's human rights record.
The European Parliament gave its annual human rights prize
to Uighur activist Ilham Tohti in 2019, who has been jailed for life.
On Sunday, his daughter Jewher tweeted that she had not had
any contact with him for three years.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told
Beijing at an EU-China summit in June that "human rights and fundamental
freedoms are non-negotiable."
European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs the
regular meetings of EU leaders, has also been critical of Chinese repression.
"We will not stop promoting respect for universal human
rights, including those of minorities such as the Uighurs," the ex-Belgian
PM said in a speech to the UN General Assembly last month.
German Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, who heads the European
Parliament's China delegation, said that DW's revelations of the use of
Hikvision technology were "extremely disturbing."
"It points to a shameful lack of due diligence in
procurement," he told DW in a telephone interview. "Hikvision is a
tech company that is deeply complicit in the terrible oppression of the Uighur
people in Xinjiang which borders on genocide."
Bütikofer said EU officials should "immediately create
transparency and draw the adequate consequences: i.e. sever any direct or
indirect business relationship with Hikvision."
Charlie Weimers, a Swedish MEP from the European
Conservatives and Reformists group, said: "The EU should have no dealings
whatsoever with a Chinese firm that is alleged to be involved in some of the
most abhorrent human rights abuses in the world."
"Nobel Prize winners should adhere to a higher
standard," he added.
In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for its
contribution to "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human
rights."
DW has been unable to locate any public tenders for the
equipment on the EU's procurement websites.
Parliamentary insiders, who work on the European
Parliament's budget committee, also say there is no trace of them in any public
EU records.
Internal rules say that contracts can be kept secret if they
are linked to "special security measures."
The European Parliament and the European Commission were
asked to provide the documents linked to the hardware's acquisition.
Officials at both institutions did not provide them by the
time of publication.
Given that neither Hikvision, nor its European subsidiaries,
have been blacklisted by the EU, there is no suggestion of any illegality.
"The equipment is neither connected to Parliament's IT
network, nor registers any data," said a European Parliament spokesperson
in a written response to DW.
The spokesperson declined to confirm if Hikvision technology
was being used in Brussels.
When DW provided photos of the cameras, she said: "We
cannot comment further on anything related to security."
A spokesperson for the European Commission, in a written
statement to DW, has since said the cameras were "purchased under an
existing framework contract."
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