The US government has passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, prominently criticizing the PRC government's "gross violations of human rights" and "mass surveillance" in Xinjiang.
The law may impact global video surveillance manufacturers through potential sanctions on companies and individuals along with human rights investigations.
In this post, we examine this legislation and its effects, including:
Ceasing PRC "Mass Surveillance" Now Official US Policy
"Senior" Chinese Officials Sanctioned; Could Hikvision Be Included?
Report Mandates "List of Chinese Companies" Involved
China strongly deplores the US signing into law of the "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020". We urge the US side to respect China's counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts, stop applying double standards on counter-terrorism issues, and stop using Xinjiang-related issues as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs.
Ceasing PRC "Mass Surveillance" Now Official US Policy
The law makes ceasing PRC "use of mass surveillance" in Xinjiang official US-China policy:
United States policy toward the People’s Republic of China should be explicitly linked with the situation in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, specifically as to whether [...] the use of mass surveillance and predictive policing to discriminate against and violate the human rights of members of specific ethnic groups has ceased and is not evident in other parts of China [emphasis added]
The law also calls out violations of religious freedom in Xinjiang, specifically the:
particularly severe restrictions of religious and cultural practice
** **** *** ***** ************** ** swiftly ********* **** *** *** ** sanctioning ********* ***** ********* **** *******, former ********* *** ***** ******* ********** Chief *** ******,Hikvision ******** **** ********, and any other Chinese official responsible for the crimes against humanity occurring in Xinjiang [emphasis added]
*list ** ******* ********* that are involved in [...] providing or operating mass surveillance ********** in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
* *********** ** [...] ***acquisition ** *********** ** ********** by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to facilitate internment and mass ************ in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including technology related to predictive policing and large-scale data collection and analysis
**assessment ** *** **** ************, predictive policing, and other methods used by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to violate the human rights of persons in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region [emphasis added]
Should be interesting to see if China reversed the role and lists England for all their public cameras. For years they were the leader due to the IRA bombings.
They could try that but that is even beyond comparing apples to oranges in terms of usage. The only thing related there is they are both using "cameras".
I’m not going to defend China, but you have to recall Huawei trying to sue the US because they felt the US actions were “un-Constitutional”
China claims the primary purpose is anti-terrorism. England installed one tunnels for anti-terrorism. It’s not such a stretch for them to make the claim for propaganda.
Here, from a likely unreliable source is a counter argument:
On the other hand, perhaps Hikvision should be encouraged to provide analytics for human rights violations. If their technology for that purpose is as atrocious as all their other analytics, Uyghurs could benefit from all the bad data it provides!
UPDATE: the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal religious freedom watchdog, has called for Hikvision's chairman Chen Zongnian to be one of the officials sanctioned by this new law:
We urge the Trump Administration to swiftly implement this new law by sanctioning Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, former Political and Legal Affairs Commission Chief Zhu Hailun, Hikvision Chairman Chen Zongnian, and any other Chinese official responsible for the crimes against humanity occurring in Xinjiang [emphasis added]
The above is a quote from USCIRF Commissioner Gary Bauer.
IPVM covered USCIRF last month when it called out Hikvision's "serious religious freedom violations".
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Comments (8)
Ross Vander Klok
Glad to see that this has become actual law. Unfortunately, I am skeptical of any actual impact other than the bad PR that you mention.
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Should be interesting to see if China reversed the role and lists England for all their public cameras. For years they were the leader due to the IRA bombings.
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Undisclosed Integrator #2
Feel-good legislation that will change nothing.
On the other hand, perhaps Hikvision should be encouraged to provide analytics for human rights violations. If their technology for that purpose is as atrocious as all their other analytics, Uyghurs could benefit from all the bad data it provides!
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Undisclosed #3
GJ Charles R. !!
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Charles Rollet
UPDATE: the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal religious freedom watchdog, has called for Hikvision's chairman Chen Zongnian to be one of the officials sanctioned by this new law:
The above is a quote from USCIRF Commissioner Gary Bauer.
IPVM covered USCIRF last month when it called out Hikvision's "serious religious freedom violations".
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