IPVM Implements A 'Not Made In PRC China' Policy
By John Honovich, Published Oct 07, 2021, 10:00am EDTIPVM is proud to implement a "not made in PRC China" policy. Watch this short video to learn more:
The China Communist Party, an authoritarian regime, intends to undermine the core freedoms of liberal democracy, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The PRC's widespread human rights abuses and campaign of repression against anyone who exposes and questions their abuses is deeply unethical.
The PRC has blocked a vast number of websites, including the BBC, the NY Times, the WSJ, and IPVM. The PRC hopes no one will push back and aims to make the rest of the world dependent on their production.
As a company, IPVM has implemented a policy against purchasing goods made in the PRC, including Apple products. IPVM will not purchase iPhones, MacBooks, etc. until and unless these devices are made outside of the PRC.
And no IPVM spending on computers and electronics, etc., with the exception of items priced at $50 or less.
We will continue to buy PRC-made products, as appropriate, and test them objectively. However, for any PRC-made product IPVM buys for testing, we will donate 10% of the purchase price to human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, which the PRC has unjustly sanctioned over the organization's work to expose abuses globally.
Alone, our modest amount of spending will not make much of a difference. However, this is the right thing to do and we hope to be an example for other organizations to do the ethical thing and refuse to buy products made in the PRC.
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Comments (131)
Good for you! The PRC also unfairly subsidizes PRC based companies, restricts foreign company activity within the PRC and arbitrarily jails foreign employees to use as bargaining chips when a PRC executive is caught breaking US law.
You had me until you said no iPhones. I will just pay the 10% to the charity to keep mine. Lol
Voting with our wallets to effect change?
Truly the American way.
Bravo John.
Good start to an effort that needs much more publicity and awareness so others can follow this campaign/initiative started by IPVM.
Will IPVM create a database that Integrators, Manufacturers and all kinds of End Users can reference to check for PRC involvement in the manufacturing or profiting aspect of products in the market?
This is an excellent step in the right direction. More of us need to step up and make a stand and an example like this. Our company has had a unpublished policy like this for almost a decade. But its really difficult to avoid PRC products entirely. Perhaps its time for companies like ours to adopt a similar policy.

I recognize this would be outside the scope of your daily business, but I would love for you guys to review the non-prc phones and tablets your team is using.
What brand PCs and servers, monitors, mice, printers, etc. are you using for testing recording, editing, etc?
Most hardware is made in China. If you google non-china laptop, you get crap results. They tell you where ASUS or Apple or Dell is headquartered in, but their hardware is all still made in China, not to mention most of the components are also made in China.
I visited ADI last week and noticed Turing products on the shelf, so I thought I'd look them up on IPVM. Now, the first thing I want to know is, where it's made. I don't see how anything in the PRC can really be NDAA compliant.
Good effort, great symbolic value. Of course it is a small step, but it is still a small step in the right direction. Cudos!
John,
Thank you for your stand. If our entire industry made a similar stand it would be felt by the PRC.
10/07/21 03:06pm
I love this idea!
Avoiding PRC products will be difficult, but it's worth it. Hopefully, this movement combined with the supply-chain chaos, will force businesses to begin developing non-PRC sources regularly. Good for IPVM for taking a stand!
Laudable as a policy, now let’s see how you get on with it on a practical basis!
the $50 limit will probably cover some of the Hik products too!

10/07/21 03:31pm
I was curious about non-China products, and this site reminded me (duh!) that two leading Android phone manufacturers are made in South Korea.
Great initiative, please keep us updated with the progress and any challenges you face
You guys are announcing a cold war on China! Since pretty much everything is made in China, from socks and underwear to TVs, garage openers, doorbells, thermostats, etc., with imports increasing due to the continued local procurement chain strains, perhaps your 10% would be better spent as a flat 10% church donation. HRW does not even do much in China, Human Rights Watch - Wikipedia. Some branches of the supply chain in the physical security market, such as PCBs, cables, connectors, lenses, LCDs, plastic and metal enclosures, IR filters, power adapters, LEDs, etc., have permanently moved overseas, and we are all benefiting from that in the form of lower prices and good availability. It promotes creativity and innovation in the USA too as we have access to various packaging options of the already commoditized technology to stay competitive on the global market.
While true the US Party in charge, an authoritarian regime, also intends to undermine the core freedoms of liberal democracy, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press. That's just for starters so how far do you take it. The issue of the Hisilicon chips is a different story.
Kudos to you IPVM! If all American companies took up this type of practice, it would strengthen our economy and job market greatly. Unfortunately, for most, profits come first...
Inspirational policy, John.
Although this has been an un-official policy at my company for the last several years, there were always occasional "exceptions" and it did not extend beyond security products.
Time to make a change. No exceptions. Will this be painful? Perhaps a bit. But it will also drive creativity by my team and opportunity for non China providers
Hopefully your policy inspires others to do the same. Based upon this chain of comments, many already have a policy and your commitment is likely to inspire others.
Well done.
Great Job IPVM. The human rights and privacy issues need to be addressed, and if only 1% of the world consumers follows your lead, it would make a big difference.
When you add to Human Rights issues the privacy and network security risks embedded into the design of PRC products and network related chipsets over the last 7 years it becomes very serious.
Risks so great that they have have resulted in bans by US, Great Britain, and other countries. Imagine how many PRC originated IOT products have been purchased and are in use throughout the world that may potential place networks, data, and personal information at risk.
These risks are not the results of mistakes or errors in software design. They are an ingeniously deliberate and often undocumented feature referred to as serialized access. Often, although the chipset has the feature, only the chipset manufacturer knows it is there. Product Manufacturers needing network connectivity have used the chips in all kinds of products because they are feature rich. As another incentive, because the manufacturers are PRC partially owned, as well as subsidized, subsidized, their products are sold for less than other chipset manufacturers products. It has been a successful business plan for the PRC, resulting in their chipsets being used by over 70% of world manufacturers.
This affects the privacy of the world community, including over a billion Chinese around the world. It is important to remember, it is not the people of China, but the PRC government that is responsible. And while the PRC has over 1,000,000 party members, there are a 1000 times more Chinese around the world, and together with the world community, we are all victims of the same privacy issues.
Keep up the good work IPVM.
I applaud your efforts.
But this decision was made a long time ago—under the Reagan Administration—to outsource our labor to China so Americans could buy affordably priced goods. The fact the pendulum is swinging back is great but in 2021—when wages have stagnated—more and more people will most likely turn to even more affordable options to help accommodate their shrinking checkbook.
As a National Integrator, we are seeing NDAA Non-Compliant products everywhere in the field. Our company has chosen and implemented "Only NDAA Compliant" products to be sold.
Why do we continue to choose to make the PRC wealthy?? PRC dominated electronic manufacturing has to stop.
Fellow security professionals please choose NDAA compliant products. Yes, you will pay a few bucks more, but I believe most customers will choose your NDAA compliant recommendations once they understand .
I applaud this decision! There was a time when I said that those who were critical of Hikua were mistaken, but I did not know then how truly uninformed I was at the time.
Thank you for taking a principled, public stand on this. History will not kindly judge those who turned a blind eye to the CCP's crimes against humanity. Nor should it, and nor should we in the present now that the world knows so many of the CCP's misdeeds.
The global death toll for COVID-19 now approaches the number of those who died in the Holocaust. #NeverForget
More Americans have died of COVID-19 than US servicemembers died in combat in WWII. Let that one sink in for a moment. #NeverForget
Please let us know the exact brands and models that you have found to be not Made In China.
In my experience, it’s very difficult to determine prior to ordering.
It should be a law for advertising.

10/07/21 10:16pm
This is an interesting policy decision, curious to see how it plays out over time.
Is your main decision criteria country of assembly, or are you looking at country of origin for majority of core components?
A bold and righteous move but I am getting some Richard Stallman-esque vibes .
Half expecting to see John running IPVM from a command line somewhere in the jungle five years from now. :D
Just kidding John. Good work!

IPVMU Certified | 10/08/21 12:50am
We have been looking, unsuccessfully, for a US based manufacturer who is able to at least come close to the price point that we are paying the PRC factory to make the stainless steel enclosure for our video intercom system. Including air shipping, we are currently paying approximately $275 each.
If anyone wants to give it a shot, or knows someone, here is what it looks like:
10/08/21 01:26am
John - GREAT CONFERENCE, and thanks for taking this position. All of us can make a conscious effort to seek alternatives to Made in PRC products every single day.
"If anyone wants to make a 1-3 minute statement"
I did send in an email request on Sept 30 @ 11:19am to speak, and prepared a brief statement, but... crickets. No problem. IPVM's stance is more important than my prepared statement. And the responses to your decision appear to be almost entirely positive.
A few of you were standing around near the stage, before the cocktail hour, when I gave John an in-person briefing of my PRC observations and beliefs. Everyone should become familiar with how the PRC compromises foreigners. I call it the 大陆方法 (Mainland China method).
My first thought was:
Isn’t the Doubletree’s largest shareholder a Chinese conglomerate (via Doubletree’s parent Hilton)?
My second was:
Ingram Micro is out as well.
However I am happy to report that despite Wikipedia’s stale info, that both are now fully divested from China :)
Bravo to IPVM for taking this stance!
10/09/21 01:59am
Ingram Micro was purchased from HNA by a Beverly Hills investment firm, Platinum Equity, in July, 2021:
Platinum Equity today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ingram Micro Inc. from HNA Technology Co., Ltd, a part of HNA Group, for a total enterprise value of $7.2 billion, in a transaction that includes $5.9 billion of equity value.
Platinum Equity » News » Platinum Equity Completes Acquisition of Ingram Micro for $7.2 Billion
IPVM has been controlled by the US goverment ?
As an American I can appreciate freedoms, but I realize those freedoms were paid for with blood spilled by the defenders of the United States of America. Isn't it time that our political leaders realize what IPVM has discovered, namely, that countries such as ROC are NOT America's friends and should NOT have Preferred Nation trade rights with the USA?
IPVM, I commend you on taking a stand, one that will surely bring opposition to your financial well-being in the short run, but should gives others the courage to take a stand with you! THAT is the AMERICAN WAY!
Bravo to IPVM!
Hahaha. Good for you guys. As for us we are not going to buy expensive stuff simply because America is afraid of a little competition.
I will not buy a flir thermal camera that is 3 times with zero analytics more than a dahua equipped with analytics. That does not make any economical sense. Bottom line USA is falling behind on almost everything. You look at the likes of Ebay which has been falling behind to the likes of alibaba. You look at the 5G and the telecoms industry as a whole.
The bottom line is the USA should find better ways of doing business otherwise the reality is that people are starting to wake up and realise they can get better products in other countries.
Great! Now do vaccine tyranny and civil rights abuses.
Good for you, we are trying to do the same and have a couple of customers who also feel the same about PRC products. We always look for alternatives and hope everyone else will do the same. Why support a regime that whats to cripple us!
IMO it would be interesting to chronicle the challenges in meeting this goal and the steps made to meet it. Products are so intentionally deceptive and muddled in the marketplace that I am not certain this goal is even feasible.
Update: in the first 10 months, we have donated ~$600 to Human Rights Watch in conjunction with PRC made products for testing. We have a process internally to monthly check and make a donation as appropriate.