WASHINGTON, October 15 — A Washington-based research group has unveiled a detailed analysis of Chinese government procurement records, tracing the supply chain of surveillance technology across Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Hong Kong. The report, titled ‘Monitoring the Frontier,’ was released on October 12 by C4ADS. At its heart, the research reveals a complex web of surveillance technology deployment across China’s regions.
The researchers employed a meticulous methodology, using a list of 165 Chinese-language terms related to digital surveillance. They flagged contracts containing two or more such terms to minimize false positives from non-surveillance contexts like school computers or traffic lights.
In Xinjiang, C4ADS identified hundreds of surveillance-related contracts. The public security bureaus appeared as buyers in fifty-five of these contracts. The top suppliers in the region included Xinjiang Zhixiang Technology Co., Ltd., China Mobile’s Xinjiang branch, and CCS Public Information Industry Co., Ltd. The report specifically noted that Tiandy and Uniview are sanctioned by the United States due to their involvement in human rights violations and mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
The researchers uncovered a particularly revealing 2024 contract showing the XPCC Twelfth Division Public Security Bureau contracting Shanghai Sailing Information Technology to equip a law enforcement case management center with biometric data collection units and deep-learning camera systems. Notably, Shanghai Sailing is 100% owned by a U.S. Department of Commerce BIS-listed entity, while the branded equipment manufacturer Hisign faces no U.S. restrictions despite its connection to that sanctioned entity.
Inner Mongolia’s Surveillance Landscape
Inner Mongolia presented a different pattern of surveillance technology deployment. C4ADS found that dozens of flagged contracts listed one of China’s three largest telecommunications companies. Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd., a U.S.-sanctioned surveillance equipment manufacturer, was mentioned in more than a thousand of the Inner Mongolia contracts.
In Hong Kong, government records documented plans for the Hong Kong Police to deploy facial recognition in CCTV systems. The report chronicled how surveillance cameras featuring AI facial recognition have been multiplying across the city, as evidenced in notices in the Government Gazette.
C4ADS acknowledged limitations in their research, noting that some sensitive contracts may not be publicly available on Chinese government websites, making cross-regional comparisons indicative rather than definitive.
Call for Regulatory Action
The report concluded with a series of recommendations for regulators. Researchers urged scrutiny of Hisign’s operations, strengthening of export controls on biotechnology shared with Chinese government partners, enhanced human rights due diligence for European technology firms, and treating routine telecom-subsidiary contracts with heightened scrutiny. As surveillance technologies continue to evolve, the findings from C4ADS shed light on the intricate networks supplying these systems across China’s diverse regions, raising questions about oversight and accountability in the digital surveillance ecosystem.
