Chinese police can set up “alarms” for various protest activities using a software platform provided by Hikvision, a major Chinese camera and surveillance manufacturer, the Guardian has learned. Descriptions of protest activity listed among the “alarms” include “gathering crowds to disrupt order in public places”, “unlawful assembly, procession, demonstration” and threats to “petition”.
These activities are listed alongside offenses such as “gambling” or disruptive events such as “fire hazard” in technical documents available on Hikvision’s website and flagged to the Guardian by surveillance research firm IPVM, or Internet Protocol Video Market. The company’s website also included alarms for “religion” and “Falun Gong” – a spiritual movement banned in China and categorized as a cult by the government – until IPVM contacted the company.
The findings come a month after mass protests against the country’s zero-Covid policies erupted across China. Though the demonstrations resulted in the government easing restrictions, many protesters later received calls from police.
The US government has long had its sights set on Hikvision. The company was placed on a commerce department blacklist that restricts the use of federal funds to purchase equipment manufactured by the firm as well as US exports to the surveillance firm for its complicity in human rights violations associated with China’s mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
In November, the Federal Communications Commission also introduced new rules that prohibited imports and sales of future Hikvision communications equipment in the US.
While Hikvision is best known for its camera equipment, the company has joined other players in developing and providing centralized platforms for police and other law enforcement to maintain, manage, analyze and respond to information collected through the many cameras set up across China. Hikvision pitches its cloud platform, called Infovision IoT, as a means to “provide intelligent public security decision-making and services” for police in order to alleviate “uneven allocation of resources, heavy workload, inability to share data”, according to the company’s website.
The technical document available on the Hikvision website does not give many details about exactly how these alarms work but describes a long list of events or activities under “types” of alarms which include “infringement of property rights”, “stealing”, “trafficking of women and children” and pornography. The document also describes “alarm methods” that include “discovery on duty”, “equipment alarm” and a call to the police.
At least nine alarm types are protest-related, according to a translation of the Hikvision technical guide: “gathering crowds to attack state organs”, “gathering crowds to disrupt the order of the unit”, “gathering crowds to disrupt order in public places”, “gathering crowds to disrupt traffic order”, “gathering crowds to disrupt order on public transport”, “gathering crowds obstructing the normal runni
