China Says It May Reduce Role of Foreign Firms in Surveillance [View all]

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Source: NY Times

The Chinese government, citing security concerns, has signaled that it may scale back the role that foreign companies play in the country’s fast-growing video surveillance industry.

Foreign firms currently hold 80 percent of China’s multibillion-dollar surveillance market, according to Frost & Sullivan, a financial research company. Analysts say that the market is expanding by 20 percent a year and could be worth more than $11 billion by 2015, with much of that growth fueled by government purchases.

But in an article published last month by the state-run China Daily, a Ministry of Public Security official said that domestic companies were better suited to produce the equipment and software that are part of the Safe Cities program, a six-year-old surveillance network that uses Internet-connected cameras to combat street crime and to keep tabs on political dissidents.

“China's security cameras play an important role in countering crimes and maintaining social stability,” Chen Chaowu, deputy director of a research institute affiliated with the Ministry of Public Security, told China Daily. “In some important areas and industries, we should avoid the risks to national security that might come from using overseas standards and products.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/world/asia/china-says-it-may-reduce-role-of-foreign-firms-in-surveillance.html