A U.S. information company has found conclusive evidence that the Chinese artificial intelligence company Zhejiang Dahua Technology is involved in the Chinese government’s persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
The U.S. video surveillance information company IPVM released a video report Thursday about a secret they found in a Dahua Technology product. According to the report, the words “EM_NATION_TYPE_UYGUR” were seen in the code of a product downloaded from Dahua Technology’s website.
The video says that the English characters mean “Ethnicity Category: Uyghur”. There is also the English spelling of “Xinjiang” after the word “Uyghur”. In other words, the video surveillance software has facial recognition features that target Uighur faces.
The information company, based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, then contacted Dahua Technology to get an explanation. IPVM reported that the information was removed from Dahua’s Web page about 30 minutes later.
Headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Dahua Technology is one of China’s largest artificial intelligence companies, with the world’s second-largest share of the global video surveillance equipment and services market (2019 figures) and annual revenues of $3.7 billion. The company employs 16,000 people.
The scandal of China’s construction of concentration camps for millions of Uyghur Muslims in various parts of Xinjiang has caused huge repercussions around the world. Many countries around the world have strongly condemned the Chinese government’s actions. The vast network of video surveillance systems established by the Chinese public security system has also attracted international attention. It was through this ubiquitous surveillance network that Chinese police arrested and repatriated Xinjiang Uighurs who had fled the country.
Chinese authorities initially vehemently denied the existence of such camps, but later were forced to admit it in the face of evidence, explaining that the buildings were not concentration camps but vocational training centers, a measure to educate Uyghurs in an effort to address the ideological roots of extremism in Xinjiang.
Many Chinese AI companies were involved in the construction of this giant “Skynet”. One of them is Dahua Technology. It uses artificial intelligence technology to design facial recognition software based on the facial features of Uyghurs, which helps the police exercise comprehensive control over Uyghurs. Wherever the Uyghurs flee, they are quickly identified and targeted by the police, and then detained or deported.
IPVM says that in the past they have found more than a dozen public security units in China that have installed such software. Dahua Technology is also very proud of its video surveillance technology, calling it a “powerful technology”. The company says it has generated nearly $1 billion in revenue from the Xinjiang police’s video surveillance program.
In October 2019, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Dahua Technology for its involvement in China’s persecution of Uyghurs, banning the company from using U.S. technology. Nonetheless, the Chinese company is seeking growth in the United States. According to the South China Morning Post, the company switched product brands last month and is still marketing its products on Amazon.com.
Dahua’s main competitors, Hikvision, Kuangvision, Shang Tang, and Etu, have all been involved to varying degrees in the Xinjiang video surveillance network project. Several of them are on the U.S. sanctions list.
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