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Hikvision Conducts Military Training For New Employees
Charles Rollet
Apr 01, 2019U
Undisclosed #1
Apr 04, 2019Clearly they are preparing for your visit to their ISC West booth next week.
Clint Hays
Apr 04, 2019That's one way to do a team building workshop. Most companies I know just go to Top Golf🤣
U
Undisclosed #1
Apr 04, 2019U
Undisclosed #3
Apr 04, 2019JH
John Honovich
Apr 04, 2019Hikvision defenders need to accept reality. An organization that conducts new hire orientation in PLA soldier uniforms while pledging loyalty to Xi Jinping is an organization that follows the rule of the authoritarian China Communist Party, including the risks it places for foreign countries, especially democracies.
None of this should be a surprise given Hikvision's Chairman is a Communist Party Secretary and member of the Chinese government but this training shows that this extends from the very top to the very newest, youngest recruit.
UD
Undisclosed Distributor #2
Apr 04, 2019Professor Willy Lam Wo-Lap told IPVM via email that the practice of military-style bootcamps for companies is becoming more popular in China as a way to showcase loyalty to the state:
Big firms (even private ones – and both tech and non-tech firms) send recruits to boot camps probably to ensure their loyalty to a) their employers; b) the Party, which ultimately controls all big companies in China.
Emboldened, italicized and underlined what everyone should be aware of by now. This quote was made not by an outsider or foreigner, but reportedly by:
Willy Lam Wo-Lap, an adjunct history professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told IPVM
Face it, there are NO "private" companies in China, they can all be controlled in a heartbeat to do what they're told, install whatever backdoor, collect whatever data they want, etc etc. Luckily my tinfoil fedora protects me ;)
UD
Undisclosed Distributor #4
Apr 04, 2019Come on. Please don't be so political and purposely mis-lead team building activity. They are wearing camouflage uniform rather than official PLA uniform.
UD
Undisclosed Distributor #2
Apr 04, 2019I'm sure a spirited game of genocidal paint-ball provided hours of entertainment!
JH
John Honovich
Apr 04, 2019Do this mental exercise. Imagine Google's new hire orientation has their staff dress in camouflage, stand on tanks, sit behind Republican signage and a dedication to Trump. Then imagine what outrage would follow.
But with Hikvision this is simply team building, correct?
If Hikvision wants to persuade people it is just a private, commercial business, then perhaps this is not the best training? Fair?
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Apr 04, 2019I guess one of the main objections is them pledging their loyalty? My kids say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school, sure it is not to a person but it is a similar activity. Do all kids at schools in the US mean what they say each morning? Probably not. Do all Hik employees mean what they said? I doubt it. I'm not saying I agree with them pledging their loyalty to Xi Jinping but there might be some cultural misunderstandings here.
As far as military style team building, I don't see any issue with it...it turns out BMW, Unilever, Microsoft, SAP, Honeywell, De Walt, Coca Cola, FedEx, BP, Kenworth, Deloitte, GlaxoSmithKline, E Trade, TYCO, and many others have done a similar team building exercise with this company based out of Australia, but also operating in other counties...including the USA.
They're not the only ones, this company in the UK does military style team building events and boasts Lego as one of their clients. Can you imagine? I wonder if they pledge their loyalty to a Teresa May Lego mini-figure.
Charles Rollet
Apr 05, 2019A few responses do your points:
- I don't think the US pledge of allegiance is comparable to this. The pledge is for children, not tech company employees. And the pledge also does not require allegiance to a particular political party nor is it explicitly militaristic.
- You say you doubt Hikvision employees really mean it when they undergo this training. But the question of whether rank-and-file Hikvision employees truly believe this stuff is not really relevant. What is far more important is what this says about Hikvision itself. The company has repeatedly distanced itself from the Chinese party-state in the West (e.g. "We Put Customers First"), but in China it puts new employees through militaristic, nationalistic trainings complete with CCP propaganda and former Army instructors. We wrote this article to highlight that contrast.
- Yes, there are some military-style boot camps used for corporate trainings in the West, although there are key differences: 1) they don't include the heavily propagandistic/nationalistic themes this China bootcamp has, nor do they require loyalty oaths to a political party 2) I couldn't find any major Western tech or surveillance firms using military-style bootcamps. That Sabre link you posted doesn't specify which of the clients you mentioned actually chose the 'military' theme, which is only one of its many corporate training options. So unless you find out that Apple or Avigilon is sending new employees to train at a pro-Trump bootcamp in North Carolina, with 'recruits' taking photos on top of tanks and being taught by former Navy Seals, along with being photographed next to GOP and nationalistic USA propaganda, the comparison is not valid.
- Last point: the US and China have fundamentally different political/economic structures, and this military bootcamp, as Professor Willy Lam told us, showcases how many companies in China are responding to a militaristic/nationalistic revival which has been ordained by China's authoritarian leader Xi Jinping. There is no analogue to that in the US, where many tech companies have in fact opposed President Trump.
U
Undisclosed #3
Apr 04, 2019Here the Hik Army is drilling with Macy’s bags, part of their retail invasion training:
One, two, three, four...
Hik will win the price war...
Hal Bennick
Apr 04, 2019
U
Undisclosed #6
Apr 05, 2019
why doesn't Chief Instructor Chen Qian have a 'Code'?
and if he did, what would it be?
Charles Rollet
Apr 05, 2019Update: two corrections - I initially described the army/police instructors as "retired", however we've changed it to "former" is this is a more accurate description. Also, the "this is wartime" quote was originally attributed to Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, but was actually said by Huawei deputy chairman Eric Xu.
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #7
Apr 05, 2019Hikvision exposed yet again. Maybe someday we can all wear these uniforms.................
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #8
Apr 08, 2019UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #9
Apr 08, 2019Looks like a militarized version of what US companies do when they require executives to read "The Art of War"?
UD
Undisclosed Distributor #10
Apr 08, 2019Wow! This should make selling against Hikvision very easy. Does anyone know why they chose "The People's Republic of China" instead of the "Facist/Communist State of China" ? We all know that if we bend the spectrum into a circle that Fascism and Communism are 1 degree apart from each other. Ethnic cleansing of Muslim's doesn't help.
Honestly... why is Hikvision even allowed to operate in America anymore? We wouldn't let the KGB sell us spy cameras why are we letting them?
JH
John Honovich
Apr 09, 2019Update: The March 26th post, featuring Hikvision employees on a tank, is now returning a 404 / not found. Our screencap for posterity:
Greg Sachnewycz
Apr 09, 2019Sounds like the usual communist "Reeducation camp".
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