Security, Spying Concerns as Philippines Considers China’s Surveillance Tender

File photo showing a man checking security cameras at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on Oct. 31, 2013. Ed Jones/Getty Images/AFP

A state-run Chinese company affiliated with China Telecom has been tapped for a vast project that would install a “video surveillance system” in major cities in the Philippines, sparking fears that sensitive data might leak into the hands of China’s communist regime and be exploited for ill.

Senator Ralph Recto said during plenary debates on the 2019 national budget on Wednesday, Dec. 12, the project might pose a “security threat.”