China claims Canada’s order for Hikvision closure ‘damages’ trade relations

Canada’s request for Chinese surveillance equipment firm Hikvision to close local operations will “damage” bilateral trade, complicating recent efforts to improve ties between the countries, China’s Ministry of Commerce has said.

Beijing’s remarks came on Monday after Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly announced last week on the social media platform X that Hikvision Canada Inc had been ordered to cease all operations due to concerns their continuation would be “injurious” to the country’s security.

Her statement on Friday did not provide details on the alleged threat posed by Hikvision products, but said departments and agencies would be prohibited from using them, and that the government is “conducting a review of existing properties to ensure that legacy Hikvision products are not used going forward”.

China’s Commerce Ministry responded by accusing Ottawa of “over-generalising national security”, stating: “China is strongly dissatisfied.”

“This not only undermines the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and affects the confidence of companies from both countries in cooperation, but also disrupts and damages the normal economic and trade cooperation between China and Canada,” the statement read.

“China urges Canada to immediately correct its wrong practices,” it added.

Hangzhou-based Hikvision is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of security cameras and other surveillance products, but it has faced scrutiny abroad for its role in Beijing’s alleged rights abuses against the Muslim minority Uighur population.

The United States included Hikvision in a 2019 blacklist of Chinese entities it said were 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 and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.

The latest disagreement represents an early test for China-Canada relations after Prime Minister Mark Carney surged to electoral victory in April.