Hikvision Wins Project Requiring Ramadan Alerts Against Minorities

Hikvision won a PRC 'Smart Campus' system that alerts when ethnic minority students are suspected of fasting for Ramadan.

Hikvision responded by admitting it won the project but alleging, without evidence, that these alerts were never actually developed/deployed.

Similarly, Hikvision recently blamed an employee for Hikvision including minority detection tech in its latest software. Hikvision has not offered any explanation for a $6 million contract explicitly requiring Hikvision Uyghur recognition that we reported on earlier this year.

Executive Summary

Hikvision won a ~$9m PRC 'Smart Campus' project in mid-2022 that alerts administrators to any ethnic minority students "suspected of fasting" during Ramadan based on "dining records."

The alerts are part of a larger surveillance system against ethnic minority students that tracks what books they borrow, their holiday destinations, family information, and more. This raises human rights concerns for targeting Uyghurs/Muslims, amid a broader PRC crackdown.

Hikvision was contracted to "meet the requirements of the tender" including the Ramadan alerts. However, after IPVM reached out, Hikvision told its international partners that it excluded these features out of concern for human rights without supplying any evidence.

PRC sources do not mention such an exclusion, and the project's successful completion was announced in December 2022.

'Smart Campus' Project Background

A July 2022 Procurement Project Results (采购项目结果) report declared Hikvision the winner of a deal worth ~$9m USD to build the first phase of a 'Smart Campus' project for Minjiang University, a public university with ~16,000 students in Fuzhou city, Fujian province.

The announcement lists Hikvision as the winner under its full official name (杭州海康威视系统技术有限公司) with the address of its Fuzhou branch office. Hikvision was contracted to "meet the requirements of the tender":

Two other companies, i-TECH and Fuzhou Youce IT, also won much smaller deals to participate in the project worth a total of ~$470k; i-TECH was contracted to supervise the project while Fuzhou Younce IT was supposed to test it. The project's payer is the Fujian Provincial Government.

Creates Surveillance System Targeting Ethnic Minority Students

The project's full 600+ page tender, which was attached to the results announcement, requires extensive surveillance of ethnic minority students via the creation of a system called "Assisted Analysis Of Ethnic Minority Students" (⺠族学⽣辅助分析) to support administrators' "decision-making":

The project uses the same term (⺠族) used by the PRC government to refer to PRC minorities.

"Fasting Month" Alerts For Minority Students

This surveillance system requires "fasting alerts" for "ethnic minority students":

The system "will automatically send an alert" on students "suspected of fasting during the fasting month" based on "dining records of such students," adding that administrators "can verify in person to clarify the situation":

The system uses the term "斋⽉" literally "fasting month", targeting Muslims as "斋⽉" is often used to refer to Ramadan within the PRC, and there is no month-long fasting ritual often practiced by other PRC religious groups (e.g., Buddhists, Christians).

USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel, a PRC-born Uyghur who speaks Chinese, told IPVM, "the Chinese term 斋⽉ (Zhaiyue) refers to Ramadan, observed by various Muslim communities, including Uyghurs, other Turkic Muslims, Hui Muslims, and Muslim students of different ethnic backgrounds".

Tracking Minority Students' "Daily Behaviors"

The project also tracks many other "daily behaviors" of minority students, such as what books they are borrowing, their holiday destinations, their passport usage, family member information, and more:

It is easy to track someone's ethnicity in the PRC as this information is disclosed on Resident Identity Cards, which are essential for many activities including going to college.

Hikvision Claims "Accused Features" Excluded

Hikvision responded to IPVM's request for comment by posting a letter to partners admitting it won the Minjiang University project but that "the accused features were not included in the list of requests" due to conflicting with "general human rights principles":

It is confirmed that one of Hikvision's subsidiaries served as the general contractor in the project. Throughout the tendering process, both the subsidiary and Minjiang University examined the conflicts between the accused features and general human rights principles. Consequently, the accused features were not included in the list of requests, which means that this project never engaged in the development and deployment of the referenced features.

Hikvision solemnly reiterates that none of our product offerings include ethnic recognition and analysis functions and we remain steadfast in our commitment to respecting human rights and opposing discrimination- a principle integral to our long-term policy. [emphasis added]

Hikvision using the term "accused features" is wrong. These are not "accused" but explicitly required in the project tender that Hikvision submitted a bid for and won.

Hikvision did not offer any evidence to substantiate this position.

Hikvision Allegation Examined

Hikvision submitted a bid for and then won the Minjiang 'Smart Campus' project with the official tender attached to the results requiring 'fasting alerts' and 'ethnic minority student' surveillance.

Local authorities published these specs in June 2022 and announced Hikvision as the winner just a month later in July.

Hikvision was contracted to "meet the requirements" of these specifications with no exceptions, per the PRC government announcement:

Hikvision's controlling shareholder, the state-owned CETC, touted this deal at the time without mentioning any excluded aspects.

In December 2022, six months after Hikvision won the bid, Minjiang University announced the project's successful completion - again, without mentioning any excluded features.

IPVM has asked Hikvision to provide evidence that the Minjiang project does not require fasting alerts. Hikvision did not respond; if it does, IPVM will update.

Rights Groups: "Nightmare Scenario," "Significant Concerns"

The 'Smart Campus' project is a "nightmare scenario" said Louisa Greve, Director of Global Advocacy for the Uyghur Human Rights Project, adding that even if Hikvision did not deliver the fasting alerts, "why in the world does it even consider doing business" with a state university requiring this:

It's truly outrageous for any tech company to do business with governments that use total-surveillance as a tool of genocide. Even if Hikvision, as it claimed by its UK and Ireland office, did not deliver a feature to monitor fasting and other normal religious practices of Muslims -- why in the world does it even consider doing business with a state university that wants to track people's religious practices?

It's a nightmare scenario -- a university wants to super-charge a long-standing government ban on students and teacher fasting for Ramadan with digital surveillance. [emphasis added]

Nury Turkel, a Uyghur and Commissioner for the US Center For International Religious Freedom, told IPVM that the 'fasting month' alerts "raise significant concerns" for Muslims as it refers to Ramadan:

Recent discussions about the procurement document issued by the Fujian provincial government suggest that the targeted students mentioned are likely to be Muslims. The Chinese term “斋⽉” (Zhaiyue) refers to Ramadan, observed by various Muslim communities, including Uyghurs, other Turkic Muslims, Hui Muslims, and Muslim students of different ethnic backgrounds. The specific surveillance capabilities requested from Hikvision regarding these students at Minjiang College raise significant concerns.

The surveillance data collected by Hikvision could potentially be used by authorities to further target and oppress Muslim students based on their freedom of religion or belief. This situation highlights the alarming potential for abuse and discrimination that arises from mass surveillance systems. USCIRF supports the U.S. government’s action to impose sanctions on the company in response to Hikvision’s actions and their implications that a threat to religious freedom in China and the human rights of Chinese citizens. [emphasis added]

For more on USCIRF, Hikvision, and religious freedom, see Hikvision Chairman Targeted For Sanctions As Federal Watchdog Calls Out Hikvision "Serious Religious Freedom Violations".

PRC's Islam Crackdown

The PRC government banned Uyghur government employees from fasting in 2014, while some Uyghurs have been sent to 're-education camps' for fasting during Ramadan. There is also a PRC government crackdown on Islam, with authorities demolishing some mosques and re-building them in a more 'Chinese' architectural style. This is part of a broader crackdown on what the PRC considers the 'three evils' of terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism.

Fujian, where this project is located, has a very small Muslim minority. Neither Hikvision nor Minjiang University responded to requests for comment about the purpose of these alerts.