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 Hikvision headquarters inHangzhou, Zhejiang | |||||||
| Company type | Public; partlystate-owned | ||||||
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| SZSE:002415 CSI A100 | |||||||
| Industry | Video surveillance Manufacturing | ||||||
| Founded | 2001; 25 years ago (2001)[1] | ||||||
| Founder |
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| Headquarters | Binjiang, Hangzhou,Zhejiang, China | ||||||
Area served | Worldwide | ||||||
Key people |
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| Products | CCTV and network surveillance systems | ||||||
| Brands | Hiksemi (HikStorage), Ezviz, Hilook, Hiwatch | ||||||
| Owner |
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Number of employees | 42,685[1] (2021) | ||||||
| Parent |
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 杭州海康威视数字技术股份有限公司 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 杭州海康威視數字技術股份有限公司 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology. Company Limited by Shares | ||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 海康威视 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 海康威視 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | HIK–vision[note 1] | ||||||
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| Footnotes / references in a consolidated basis (net assets and net profit excluding minority interests); in Chinese Accounting Standards[3] | |||||||
Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., often shortened toHikvision, is a Chinese partlystate-owned manufacturer and supplier ofvideo surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered inHangzhou, Zhejiang.[4][5]
Due to its alleged involvement inmass surveillance ofUyghurs[1] and theXinjiang internment camps[6] and national security concerns, the company has been placed under sanctions from the U.S. and European governments.[7][8][9]
Hikvision was founded in 2001 by Zhejiang HIK Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Chinese:浙江海康信息技术股份有限公司) with the company having a 51% stake andGong Hongjia (龚虹嘉) a 49% stake at that time.[citation needed]
Hikvision has been listed on theShenzhen Stock Exchange since 2010.[10]
In October 2016, the company concluded a deal to useMovidius'computer vision technology.[11]
In May 2017, Hikvision established Hikstorage, a subsidiary focused on the production of storage devices.[12]
In January 2021, the company won a US$33 million, 1,900-camerasmart city project inShanghe County, Shandong that includes cameras withfacial recognition andlicense plate recognition technologies.[13]
In 2021,Best Buy,Home Depot, andLowe's stopped selling cameras from Hikvision brand Ezviz due to concerns about Hikvision's complicity in surveillance and human rights violations in Xinjiang.[14]
In 2022, Hikvision was awarded a Chinese government contract to develop software to track "key people" in order to prevent them from entering Beijing.[15][16] The same year,IPVM also reported that Hikvision has specific alarms in its software to alert Chinese police to "religion,Falun Gong, and various protest activities.[17] In 2022, Hikvision won a "smart campus" contract with the Chinese government to alert university administrators of studentsfasting during Ramadan.[18]Amazon Web Services provides cloud services to Hikvision.[19] In 2023, Hikvision released software that includesethnic minority detection.[20] In January 2024, Hikvision joined theUnited Nations Global Compact.[21]
In January 2019, the U.S. government began considering whether it should sanction Hikvision, which American government officials described as having "provided thousands of cameras that monitor mosques, schools, andconcentration camps in Xinjiang."[22][23]
The U.S. government banned Hikvision from receiving federal government contracts in August 2019 due to security concerns.[24][25][26] In October 2019, Hikvision was formally placed on theEntity List by the U.S. government, which stated that it was involved in surveillance ofUyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China.[7][27] Hikvision expressed its opposition to the U.S. decision and stated that they believe the decision had no factual basis. They urged the U.S. government to re-examine its decision.[28]
In response to the bans and sanctions, Hikvision has hired formerU.S. ambassadorPierre-Richard Prosper "to advise the company regarding human rights compliance"[29] as well as numerous lobbyists, including former U.S. senatorsDavid Vitter[30][31] andBarbara Boxer, former U.S. congressmanToby Moffett, and a former seniorOFAC official.[32]
In August 2020, theIndian government banned Hikvision from bidding in government tenders and also required removal of Hikvision cameras from military and high-security areas.[33]
In April 2021, theEuropean Parliament confirmed that it had removed Hikvision thermal cameras from its premises following the approval of an amendment sponsored by DutchMEPLara Wolters calling for the removal of "all of Hikvision’s thermal cameras from Parliament’s premises" due to "an unacceptable risk that Hikvision, through its operations in Xinjiang, is contributing to serious human rights abuses."[34]
In July 2021, the UKForeign Affairs Select Committee published a report stating that Hikvision cameras "have been deployed throughout Xinjiang, and provide the primary camera technology used in the internment camps".[35]
In June 2022, documents from theXinjiang Police Files showed how Hikvision technology is used by Xinjiang police to surveil all Xinjiang residents.[36]
In June 2021, 224 Hikvision products were banned for one year by South Korea'sMinistry of Science and ICT over forged test reports.[37]
In September 2021, theIndian Navy's headquarters "asked its all formations to 'discontinue' procurement of CCTV cameras and surveillance systems from Hikvision," according toThe Week.The Week also reported that the Indian Navy had ordered the replacement and destruction of its existing Hikvision cameras.[38]
In April 2022, the UKDepartment of Health and Social Care banned the purchase of Hikvision cameras.[39] In November 2022, the UK prohibited the use of Hikvision equipment in government buildings.[40]
In August 2022, theMinistry of Business, Innovation and Employment of New Zealand said that it would stop buying Hikvision cameras.[41]
In February 2023, Australia'sDepartment of Defence announced that it will remove cameras made by Hikvision from its buildings.[42]
In June 2023, Ukraine'sNational Agency on Corruption Prevention declared Hikvision an "international sponsor of war" for supplying dual-purpose equipment to Russia that can be used for military purposes.[43][44]
In October 2023, Hikvision reportedly recommitted its operations to the United Kingdom after clarifying that the ban on its cameras on sensitive sites does not extend to public authorities or police stations. The use of their security cameras was adopted by U.K. authorities despite opposition from ministers worrying of "security threats". As a response, the U.K. parliament updated the definition of their ban on sensitive sites.[45]
In December 2023, Quebec banned the use of Hikvision technology in government.[46] In January 2024, Taiwanese authorities indicted a Hikvision employee for illegally recruiting and establishing a Hikvision office in Taiwan through ashell corporation.[47][48]
In November 2020, U.S. PresidentDonald Trump issued anexecutive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that theUnited States Department of Defense has listed as having links to thePeople's Liberation Army, which included Hikvision.[49][50][8] In December 2020, Hikvision was removed fromFTSE Russell.[51]
On 12 January 2021, theJoe Biden inaugural committee returned a $500 donation to former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) after she registered as a foreign agent for Hikvision.[52]
In March 2021, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that Hikvision services and equipment "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security."[53] After PresidentJoe Biden signed into law theSecure Equipment Act of 2021, in November 2022, the FCC banned sales or import of equipment made by Hikvision for national security reasons.[54]
In March 2023, four Hikvision subsidiaries were added to theUnited States Department of Commerce's Entity List.[55] In April 2023,BBC News reported that the US Department of Defense believes that Hikvision products are beingwhite labeled and resold to the US government, creating a security risk.[56]
In March 2025, the FCC opened an investigation into Hikvision and other Chinese companies regarding operations in the U.S. in violation of restrictions.[57]
In 2018, Hikvision hiredSidley Austin andThe Glover Park Group to lobby the U.S. federal government on its behalf.[58] After having been initially registered under theU.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act from the start of their representation, the US Department of Justice requested Sidley Austin to update their registration under theForeign Agents Registration Act in 2022. With the updated registration, the firm reported having received approximately $7.4 million in fees between 2018 and 2022, according toReuters.[59][60]
In June 2025, the Canadian federal government ordered Hikvision to close its operations in Canada due to national security concerns.[61][62] In September 2025, theFederal Court dismissed a request from Hikvision to have the ruling thrown out.[63]
Hikvision has been accused of supplying cameras for the purpose of surveillance of Palestinians in the West Bank,[64] and in themass surveillance ofUyghurs[1] and theXinjiang internment camps.[65]
In May 2017, seven series of Hikvision cameras were affected by an improperauthenticationvulnerability which, if exploited, could allow "a malicious attacker [to] escalat[e] his or her privileges or assum[e] the identity of an authenticated user and [obtain] sensitive data," according to the U.S.Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.[66]
In May 2021, Italian public broadcasterRAI reported that Hikvision cameras automatically "opened communication channels with addresses registered in China" once connected to the internet.[67] Hikvision declined to comment on the RAI investigation.[67]
In September 2021, Hikvision announced acommand injection vulnerability with theCVE-ID CVE-2021-36260.[68]Forbes reported that the vulnerability, which has aCVSS base score of 9.8 out of 10, left dozens of Hikvision camera models "susceptible to remote hijacking" without requiring a username or password.[69]
In 2022,Axios reported that Hikvision had hiredFTI Consulting to conduct cybersecurity audits of its products.[70]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2020) |
As of 31 December 2017[update] Hikvision was owned by China Electronics Technology HIK Group Co., Ltd. (HIK Group,中电海康集团有限公司), a wholly owned subsidiary ofChina Electronics Technology Group, which has a 39.59% stake.[3]: 82 China Electronics Technology Group is a state-run enterprise owned and supervised by theState-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 (中国电子科技集团公司第五十二研究所).[3]: 82 The Chairman of Hikvision,Chen Zongnian [zh] (陈宗年), is also the chairman and theParty Committee Secretary of HIK Group, and Head of the aforementioned research institute.[3]: 92
As of November 2019[update] the firm's largest individual shareholder was vice-chairman Gong Hongjia with a 13% stake.[71] As of 12 December 2019Fidelity International was also a major investor in Hikvision.[72]
In 2017, the third largest shareholder was a private equity fund (新疆威讯投资管理有限合伙企业;Xīnjiāng Wēixùn) which had a 7% stake,[3]: 82 which is associated with then Hikvision general manager Hu Yangzhong.[3]: 82 According to previous filing, "Xinjian Weixun" was also associated with Liu Xiang (刘翔),[73]: 57 former director (from 2015 to March 2018) and former deputy general manager of Hikvision, then deputy general manager of HIK Group, chairman of sister listed company Phenix Optical.[3]: 92
In 2017, the fourth largest shareholder was another private equity fund (新普康投资有限合伙企业) which had a 2% stake.[3]: 92 The fund was partly owned by Gong's wife Chen Chunmei (陈春梅) and aforementioned Hu Yangzhong.[3]: 83 Hu Yangzhong also owned an additional 1.33% stake personally.[3]: 82 To sum up, those shareholders owned a combined 65.71% stake. Lastly, Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company owned 9.77%,[3]: 82 which was the nominees of theShanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect andShenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect.
In 2021,IPVM alleged that Hikvision was created and controlled by the Chinese government.[74][75]
In 2015, IPVM criticized Hikvision for allegedly obscuring its Chinese government ownership.[76] Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision North America, had criticized the online blogger site for allegedly seeking financial gain.[77]
Alan West, in a 2016 interview published byThe Times (and re-published byThe Australian), suggested that Hikvision's ownership raised ethical and security concerns when it came to the usage of Hikvision's products by the British government.[4]
The United States has considered sanctioning the Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision, which has provided thousands of cameras that monitor mosques, schools, and concentration camps in Xinjiang.
The prohibition was mandated by Congress...And it extends to other Chinese companies...including the telecom equipment maker ZTE and Hikvision, which develops facial-recognition technology
