The logo for Australia's public broadcaster ABC is seen on its head office building in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)
Surveillance equipment made by companies linked to China’s communist regime has been found at Australia’s national broadcaster and is being dismantled, an internal audit has confirmed.
Cameras made by Hikvision and Dahua were found to have been installed at Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)’s headquarters in Ultimo, Sydney and two other locations.
An ABC spokesman said that work was underway to remove the cameras but would not confirm how many had been installed.
The public broadcaster’s headquarters is home to some high-profile news programs, such as 7:30, Q&A, ABC Radio National, and the investigative news program Four Corners.
ABC did not confirm whether the CCTV cameras were connected to the Internet.
The cameras were provided by Chinese companies Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology, both accused of being involved in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s human rights atrocities against Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang and have been banned by the United Kingdom and the United States in November 2022.
"Dahua Technology" camera at MTR Kowloon Tong Station in Hong Kong. File photo. (Song Bi-lung/The Epoch Times)
Hikvision has been revealed to have close ties to the CCP and its military. Partly owned by the CCP regime, the group is the world’s largest video surveillance manufacturer.
According to the CCP’s National Intelligence Law enacted in 2017, the communist regime can compel any organisation or citizen to “support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.”
Shadow Minister: Ironic that ABC Reporting on the Matter
James Paterson, the Shadow Minister for Cyber Security & Countering Foreign Interference, called for the devices to be taken down urgently and questioned why ABC had not done so, as it was reporting on the matter itself.
“It is ironic the ABC has Hikvision cameras given they have reported themselves on the national security risks and human rights implications of these Chinese Communist Party linked companies,” he told NCA NewsWire.
“Now that they have been identified, they must be immediately removed, like in all other Commonwealth entities.”
In February, it was revealed that almost 1000 Chinese-made surveillance cameras were installed across over 250 sites of Commonwealth departments and agencies, including foreign affairs and defence sites.
This comes after Paterson released the findings of a six-month audit of all commonwealth departments, which found the federal government buildings “riddled with CCP spyware.”
Senator James Paterson of the centre-right Liberal Party before a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Sept. 5, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
In response, the Labor government confirmed that it had launched an audit of the equipment.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has ordered the removal of Chinese-made surveillance equipment from his department.
“That (risk has) obviously been there, I might say, for some time and predates us coming into office but, that said, it’s important that we go through this exercise and make sure that our facilities are completely secure,” Marles said last month.
Officials at the Department of Finance also confirmed that Chinese-made cameras and intercom systems are being removed from 65 offices of nearly 100 federal lawmakers.
Hikvision previously said that suggestions that its equipment poses a threat to national security are “categorically false.”
However, Paterson pointed out that, as providers of facial recognition technology, both Hikvision and Dahua were involved in the ongoing persecution of Uyghurs.
“It’s important that all Australians understand the risks that they are personally exposed to whether there’s one of these devices in a private home or business or in a public area, let alone government,” he said on Feb. 21.
