Sydney
Australian war memorial removes Chinese cameras over fear of espionage
Key Point
- The camera was manufactured by a company partly owned by the Chinese government.
- These are scheduled to be removed by mid-2023.
- There was nothing ‘downside’ about the Australian War Memorial chairs.
More than a dozen Chinese security cameras will be removed from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Kim Beasley, the newly appointed chairman of the memorial, confirmed the decision on Wednesday, saying it was showing “due care”.
The cameras are made by Hikvision, a company partly owned by the Chinese government and one of the world’s largest suppliers of CCTV cameras, according to the Canberra Times.
The 11 cameras manufactured by the company are scheduled to be removed from the War Memorial by mid-2023.
“It’s not just cameras… you’re pretty careful with all your electronics right now,” Beasley told media on Wednesday.
“It’s not because we’ve been notified of any inconvenience, but we should be very careful.”
A War Memorial spokesperson said the agency takes its security obligations seriously, but declined to comment on specific security issues.
Australia was criticized by Beijing when it became the first country in the world to ban Chinese company Huawei from providing 5G technology to its wireless network.
The move was justified as protecting national security, but it sparked a series of interactions between the two countries that led to a diplomatic lock-out and trade implications for China.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australian-war-memorial-to-remove-chinese-made-security-cameras-over-spying-fears/9klvj3zba Australian war memorial removes Chinese cameras over fear of espionage
