Database Entry: Hikvision Wins Chinese Government Forced Facial Recognition Project Across 967 Mosques
Surveillance Religious Persecution Use of technology

Hikvision Wins Chinese Government Forced Facial Recognition Project Across 967 Mosques

July 16, 2018
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IPVM obtained this tender from the AFP and reviewed it.

The most invasive aspect is the mass use of facial recognition technology, as the tender requires:

967 facial recognition cameras to be placed at the entrance of each of the 967 mosques in Moyu County.
清真寺安防子系统在入口处设置,墨玉县 967 个清真寺,需购置摄像机 967

The project includes even more provisions for video-based surveillance and censorship systems specific to mosques, such as a video conferencing system for “unified” sermons to be broadcast in mosques from a “video conferencing hub” in Moyu County’s Ethnic Affairs Commission. Such a system would effectively eliminate the need for any preachers to hold their own sermons.

The project Hikvision won adds 840 security cameras for the mosques (in addition to the facial recognition cameras). These are a combination of bullet and dome cameras as well as night-time full color dome cameras. The tender estimates that each of Moyu County’s 967 mosques already has 5 security cameras, or a total of about 4,835 cameras. These existing cameras are to be integrated into the new surveillance system, i.e. the 967 facial recognition cameras + the 840 dome/bullet cameras.