‘Dahua Technology’ CCTVs Found to Be Able to Identify Uyghurs and Tibetan Faces

"Dahua Technology" camera at MTR Kowloon Tong Station in Hong Kong. File photo. (Song Bi-lung/The Epoch Times)

In Hong Kong and mainland China, CCTV cameras are almost everywhere. The Chinese mainland company “Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. Ltd.” was recently found by the Internet Protocol Video Market (IPVM), a U.S. video surveillance research organization, that four types of its surveillance cameras have the capability to identify race, skin color, and Uyghurs or Tibetan faces. “Dahua Technology” denied the accusation and claimed that it would never develop products that identify ethnic groups.

Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. Ltd. has long been accused of helping the CCP set up a surveillance network to persecute the Uyghurs in Xinjiang Region. In October 2019, it was placed on the sanctions list by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The U.S. government has criticized “Dahua Technology” for its repression of Xinjiang Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of the Muslim minority, in acts such as arbitrary mass detentions and using high-tech surveillance for alleged human rights violations and abuses.

On Oct. 17, 2022, IPVM published an article claiming four “Dahua Technology” surveillance cameras, including “DH-IPC-HF8249F-FD,” “DH-IPC-MFW8449-ZHM-D47-LI-0832,” DH-CP835-AU1F-LZF2070,“ and ”DH-SDT-5A404-C2F,” are all capable of identifying gender, age, race, skin color, facial expression,  Uyghurs or Tibetan faces. And even the product introduction on the website also mentions such functions.

Develop the “Uyghur Warning” System

IPVM pointed out that the “Dahua Technology” surveillance cameras can identify Uyghurs from within a crowd, and issue “Uyghur Warnings” to the CCP police, helping them to arrest Uyghurs quickly. This is the “online police” model touted by “Dahua Technology” to enhance the police’s prediction, early-warning, and prevention capabilities. IPVM criticized this racial warning technique as evil and must stop.

The IPVM said that “Dahua Technology” was awarded nearly $1 billion in contracts for large-scale Xinjiang police projects, including the construction and operation of surveillance facilities in Xinjiang police stations. In November 2020, Dahua Technology replied to the South China Morning Post by email, denying that their products had a race-tracking function. In February 2021, “Dahua Technology” was found to have software development tools that included tracking functions for Uyghurs, and the company later changed its claim to “have never provided ethnic detection products or services in Xinjiang, China.”

In August 2021, “Dahua Technology” changed its claim again to “have never developed a product or solution designed to identify or otherwise target any specific ethnic group.”

In August 2022, Dahua Technology finally acknowledged the authenticity of the “Uyghur Warning” work but claimed that the document was a “historic internal software design requirement document.” The company had never implemented or put it into commercial use.

Recently, “Dahua Technology” admitted to IPVM the authenticity of the introduction of the four camera product webpages but declared that it was “deeply troubled and concerned” about the introduction on its own website and already launched an investigation. The company claims that the investigation found that the relevant web page was published before 2018, and they have never developed racial identification features for commercial use, and even claims to “never develop products and solutions identifying or discriminating against any single ethnic group.”

Widespread Use of Technology as a Totalitarian Tool

On October 13, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) held a meeting to launch its new book “Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control.”

The book mentions that tech firms are authorized by the CCP to produce vast CCTV networks, including artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of instant analysis, to form widespread surveillance systems that are not bound by China’s legal system and emerging digital privacy codes. Dahua Technology is one of the top ten surveillance technology companies in China.

HK MTR to Install Dahua CCTVs

In August 2021, the Epoch Times reported on the installation of “Dahua Technology” CCTV cameras at the Hong Kong MTR stations. The MTR Corporation replied at the time that the CCTVs within the station area have a video recording function but no face recognition function. There have always been strict procedures and guidelines for recording video clips and processing related information so obtained. In general, CCTV video clips will be destroyed after 28 days. For the relevant practices, reference has always been made to the guidelines of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.

Wong Ho-wah, the convener of the Open Data Group of the Hong Kong Internet Governance Forum, responded at the time that he understood the concerns of Hong Kong citizens about the “Dahua Technology” equipment. Because of the alleged involvement of race-related facial recognition, the public would be worried that a similar situation would happen in Hong Kong. “When you see Hikvision, Dahua, or even just a 360-degree fisheye lens, you will naturally think of the facial recognition system.”

Wong also pointed out that the brand of CCTVs is not the most important, the key is how it is being used. Even if you use other brands to record video, if the pixels are clear enough, you can also put the video on the computer for video analysis and processing. He believes that institutions and people who use CCTVs should have corresponding ethics and should not use artificial intelligence (AI) excessively or indiscriminately.