Double win week in Hikvision campaign

Free Tibet had two wins in less than a week in our campaign to drive Hikvision, the Chinese state-owned CCTV company, out of the UK and cut off the supply of taxpayer money flowing to support the oppression of Tibetans.

Hikvision is a key part of the Chinese government’s brutal surveillance state in Tibet, as well as being central to the operation of the detention camps used to hold Uyghurs in East Turkestan (governed as Xinjiang).

On Monday 27 June it was announced that the Department for Work and Pensions has joined the Department for Health and Social Care in committing to not use Hikvision cameras in the future. This is another big step to making sure that oppression in Tibet does not pay elsewhere in the world.

On 21 June Free Tibet also discovered that Hikvision had been nominated for an award at the British Security Awards. We were disgusted that a company that is complicit in human rights abuses could be considered worthy of celebration in the UK called on the organisers to withdraw the nomination and began preparations to protest at the event in London this week.

We also contacted MPs asking them to support our campaign and former leader of the Conservative party Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP quickly tweeted his support. Just a few days later the organisers contacted us to tell us the nomination had been withdrawn and Hikvision would not be attending.

I'm deeply concerned to hear @hikvision has been nominated for a @thebsia security award. @ipacglobal colleagues and others have been arguing that @hikvision, which has facilitated the mass abuse of #Uyghurs, should be removed out of every UK building. Rescind the nomination…

— Iain Duncan Smith MP (@MPIainDS) June 21, 2022

These are two big wins against the Chinese state-owned, largest supplier of CCTV equipment in the UK, but while any part of Hikvision remains in the UK it will still be able to fund the oppression of Tibetans and use technology developed in the UK to keep Tibet the least free place in the world.

The net is closing in on Hikvision in the UK with more and more public bodies rejecting them and Free Tibet is working with other organisations to push the government to make it illegal for taxpayer money to be given to Hikvision.

Take action

This campaign is gaining momentum. We must continue to pressure the UK government and demand they stop purchasing Hikvision equipment and ban Hikvision sales in the UK.

Together, we are showing Hikvision that there is a price for their involvement in repression in Tibet. We have more actions and advocacy work in the pipeline in the UK and internationally, but we can’t do it without your support. Please join our Hikvision campaign today.

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