Australia will remove Chinese-made surveillance cameras from some government buildings, to ensure they are “completely secure“, announced Thursday, February 8 the Minister of Defense of the country.
Officials will find and remove all these cameras present on sites attached to the Ministry of Defense, said Richard Marles, the minister.
Securing many facilities
“This is an important thing that has been brought to our attention and we will fix it.so that these facilities arecompletely secure“, he explained to the national broadcaster ABC.
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Chinese-made security cameras have been installed in more than 200 Australian government buildings – including at least one run by the Department of Defence, according to figures compiled by opposition lawmaker James Paterson.
“Excess of caution”?
The Australian War Memorial, a sprawling 14-hectare, government-funded complex in Canberra, also confirmed it would be removing a small number of Chinese-made cameras by “excessive caution“. These cameras were produced by the companies Hikvision and Dahua, both of which have been blacklisted in the United States.
In November of last year, the United States banned the import of surveillance equipment made by these companies, citing “an unacceptable risk to national security“.
Warming up relations with China
The centre-left Australian government has been trying to warm up its relations with China since Anthony Albanese came to power last May.
At the height of tensions in 2020, China had imposed high tariffs on key Australian exports.
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