CANBERRA, Australia – Australia´s Defense Department will remove surveillance cameras made by Chinese Communist Party-linked companies from its buildings, the government said after the US and Britain made similar moves.
The Australian newspaper reported that at least 913 cameras, intercoms, electronic entry systems and video recorders developed and manufactured by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua are in Australian government and agency offices, including the Defense Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Hikvision and Dahua are partly owned by China’s Communist Party-ruled government.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said his department is assessing all its surveillance technology.
“Where those particular cameras are found, they´re going to be removed,” Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp according to AP. “There is an issue here and we´re going to deal with it.”
Asked about Australia’s decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning criticized what she called “wrongful practices that overstretch the concept of national security and abuse state power to suppress and discriminate against Chinese enterprises.”
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