Biometric surveillance camera-maker Dahua has announced that it and its subsidiaries have cancelled contracts for five projects with local governments in China’s Xinjiang region, as Chinese surveillance companies adjust to shifting global market conditions.
The projects were all agreed to in 2016 and 2017, Reuters reports, and some had been cancelled while others were still operational when the company made the disclosure in a stock exchange filing.
Domestic surveillance contracts have not sustained China’s facial recognition surveillance unicorns, such as SenseTime, which reportedly saw a 58 percent reduction in revenue from smart city contracts in the first half of 2023. The company has since switched its focus away from FRT.
Allegations of repressions against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, including biometric surveillance with ethnicity detection, have dogged Dahua and other Chinese companies, leading to Entity List sanctions in the U.S. and heavy criticism elsewhere. The resulting pressure on international sales has allegedly led to shady practices by at least one Dahua distribution partner in the U.S. Dahua provided no explanation for why it was cancelling the Xinjiang contracts, but a report on the overseas ambitions of Chinese surveillance technology companies may provide a clue.
