Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. is a partially state-owned Chinese manufacturer and supplier of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered in Hangzhou, China. Its controlling shares are owned by the Chinese government.
History
Hikvision was founded in 2001 by Zhejiang HIK Information Technology Co., Ltd. with the company having a 51% stake and Gong Hongjia a 13.4% stake. Hikvision made products for the video surveillance market. It devotes 8% of its annual revenue to research and development, with 40,403 employees. Hikvision has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2010. The company provides surveillance products to the global market via more than "2,400 partners in 155 countries and regions", and has its presence in 18 locations around the world. In October 2016, the company concluded a deal to use Movidius' computer vision technology.
Controversies
Alleged attempts to conceal government ownership
IPVM.com has criticized Hikvision for allegedly obscuring its Chinese government ownership. Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision North America had criticized the online blogger site for allegedly seeking financial gain. Alan West, in an interview published by The Times, suggested that Hikvision's ownership raised ethical and security concerns when it came to the usage of Hikvision's products by the British government.
Involvement in re-education camps
In January 2019, the U.S. government began considering whether it should sanction Hikvision, which The Nation described as having "provided thousands of cameras that monitor mosques, schools, and concentration camps in Xinjiang." The U.S. government banned Hikvision from government contracts in August 2019, with trade tension between China and the United States as well as security concerns given as reasons by the New York Times. In October 2019, Hikvision was formally placed under sanctions by the U.S. Government for its role in surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China by its placement on the Entity List of the Department of Commerce. In response to the bans and sanctions, Hikvision hired lobbyists including former senator David Vitter.
Shareholders
Hikvision was owned by China Electronics Technology HIK Group Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, which has a 39.59% stake. China Electronics Technology Group is a state-run enterprise that is owned and supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. China Electronics Technology Group holds an additional 1.96% stake of Hikvision via its 52nd research institute. The Chairman of Hikvision, Chen Zongnian, is also the chairman and the Party Committee Secretary of HIK Group, and Head of the aforementioned research institute. The firm's largest individual shareholder is Vice Chairman Gong Hongjia with a 13.4% stake. The third largest shareholder is a private equity fund which has a 7.09% stake, which is associated with current Hikvision General Manager Hu Yangzhong. According to previous filing, "Xinjian Weixun" was also associated with Liu Xiang, former director and former deputy general manager of Hikvision, current deputy general manager of HIK Group, chairman of sister listed companyPhenix Optical. The fourth largest shareholder is another private equity fund which had a 2.08% stake. The fund was partly owned by Gong's wife Chen Chunmei and aforementioned Hu Yangzhong. Hu Yangzhong also owned an additional 1.33% stake personally. To sum up, those shareholders owned a combined 65.71% stake. Lastly, Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company owned 9.77%, which was the nominees of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect. Fidelity International is also a major investor in Hikvision.
