Over a third of police forces in the UK are using surveillance cameras made by companies with ties to the communist Chinese government, thereby endangering Britain’s national security, the surveillance watchdog has claimed.

The government’s independent biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner Fraser Sampson has called for police forces to begin phasing out and replacing surveillance equipment made by Chinese companies such as Hikivision and DJI, both of which are mandated by law to share intelligence with the communist government in Beijing.

Speaking to the Times of London, Sampson said: “I’d liken this situation to digital asbestos because these systems have been widely installed by a previous generation with proper motives, largely on the basis that they were cheap and got the job done. Now we know they bring significant risk we should probably stop installing any more until we understand the depth and breadth of those risks. And then we should set up a timeline for assessment and, if appropriate, removal or replacement.”

The watchdog claimed that over a third of police forces throughout the country are using such technology and that many had reached out to him to determine what should be classified as a “sensitive site” after the government banned their use in such areas last November.  The snooping tsar also questioned the use of drones made by the Chinese tech giant DJI by the police.

“If those police drones wouldn’t be allowed to fly over sensitive government sites, are they OK being trusted with sensitive surveillance functions in local policing? I think those are questions we need to ask.”

A spokeswoman for DJI said that their products have saved hundreds of lives in rescue missions and that their drones have been vetted by security experts in the United States and the European Union.

Sampson went on to say that the issue extended beyond police forces, however, noting that many public institutions have also deployed compromised Chinese equipment. Indeed, half of London’s borough councils have deployed surveillance tech made by Hikvision and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co Ltd.

“Do we want untrusted companies and equipment watching us… on the underground, screening our luggage at airports, coming into police custody, places of worship, polling stations, abortion clinics?” Sampson questioned.

Responding to the revelations, Brexit leader Nigel Farage said: “We need to cut this link with China as quickly as we can. Sadly too many in high office in Britain are under the influence of China, I’m sure money has nothing to do with it.”

Earlier this year, the government watchdog warned that some Chinese-made surveillance cameras have built-in hidden microphones with the capability of being remotely activated, a claim that Hikvision has denied.

Aside from the national security concerns, there are also ethical questions surrounding the use of such equipment. Hikvision, which is one of the largest surveillance companies in the world, was paid 1.85 billion yuan (~£215m/$260m) by the Chinese state in 2017 to install a “social prevention and control system” made up of tens of thousands of cameras in Xinjiang, where millions of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghur Muslims have been interned in concentration camps.

The United States Department of Commerce during the Trump administration in 2019 blacklisted Hikvision and 28 other Chinese firms for being “implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”

A spokesman for the firm said in response to allegations of complicity in the brutal crackdown in Xinjiang said: “Hikvision takes all reports regarding human rights very seriously and recognises our responsibility for protecting people and property. The company has been engaging with governments globally to clarify misunderstandings about the company, our business, and address their concerns.

“In the recent past we have co-operated with UK government cross-departmental inquiries, and will continue to do so in the future where appropriate.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka