On Friday evening, June 27th, Canadian Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly announced that, based on national security considerations, the Canadian government has ordered Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Hikvision to terminate its business operations in Canada.
Over the past five and a half years, Hikvision, formally known as Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., has faced multiple sanctions and restrictions from neighboring country the United States due to allegations that their equipment was being used by the Chinese Communist Party for human rights violations in the Xinjiang region.
According to reports from human rights organizations, the Chinese government has imposed large-scale illegal detentions and torture against Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.
“The government has determined that the continued operation of Hikvision Canada Inc in Canada would harm Canada’s national security,” Mélanie Joly stated on the social media platform X. After conducting a multi-step review of information provided by Canada’s security and intelligence agencies, the government made this decision.
Hikvision claims to be the world’s largest manufacturer of video surveillance equipment. The company stated that after its five subsidiaries were blacklisted by the U.S. in 2023, it withdrew from contracts in Xinjiang last year.
Canada announced last year that it was reviewing applications for sanctions against Chinese surveillance equipment companies, including Hikvision, following allegations by human rights organizations that these companies were assisting the Chinese government in human rights suppression and high-tech monitoring in Xinjiang.
Mélanie Joly mentioned that Canada is also banning government departments and institutions from purchasing Hikvision products and is reviewing existing equipment to ensure products related to Hikvision are not used in the future.
She also noted that this order does not affect the company’s operations outside of Canada but strongly urges Canadians to take notice of the government’s decision and make their own appropriate judgments.
Hikvision was previously blacklisted by the Trump administration in 2019, accusing it of involvement in human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China. In November 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a ban on Hikvision’s video surveillance and telecommunications equipment, prohibiting the unauthorized sale of its products in the United States. The FCC stated that the services and equipment provided by these companies posed an “unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security.
(This article was compiled with information from Reuters)