This archive report was first published on 24 November 2019.
At the Milipol security trade fair in France, China is the best-represented nation, with 89 out of 1,100 companies showcasing their wares. However, unlike other stands, Chinese firms are displaying non-lethal equipment, including helmets, bullet-proof vests, and tactical clothing for special forces or riot troops.
China's surveillance technology has been a topic of concern, with market research firm IHS Markit estimating that the country has already deployed 176 million cameras to monitor public spaces. This number is expected to expand to 2.76 billion by 2022, with nearly two cameras for each citizen.
The surveillance network, coupled with facial recognition technology, is a key element of China's efforts to control its population. However, concerns about the system appear to be well-placed, with human rights groups and outside experts saying that more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been rounded up in a network of internment camps in Xinjiang.
Beijing initially denied the existence of the camps but now describes them as vocational schools aimed at dampening the allure of Islamist extremism and violence through education and job training.
China's involvement in the tech fair has stirred controversy in the past, with organisers closing the stand of one Chinese firm in 2017 after human rights campaigners from Amnesty International called them out for allowing it to display equipment that could be considered torture instruments.
Hytera Communications Corporation, a Chinese firm present at the fair, offers communications gear that integrate images from body cameras to smartphones equipped with big antennas. According to Sylvain Shuang, who represents the firm in francophone Africa, each police officer can have the tactical situation displayed on their smartphone, coupled with images from the network of surveillance cameras.
Hytera Communications Corporation has found itself barred from seeking public contracts in the United States, as has fellow Chinese company Hikvision, the world's top video surveillance firm. Hikvision, which has supplied cameras for the video surveillance system in the French city of Nice, is not present at Milipol this year.
Several companies present at the fair come from the Shenzhen region near Hong Kong, home to telecommunications equipment maker Huawei. "It's the Silicon Valley of China," said Yolen Ye, sales manager at GDU, which makes mini drones equipped with cameras.
