Australian federal government is planning to remove China-made surveillance cameras from government buildings amid security concerns. Britain and US also made a similar move recently.

Reportedly at least 913 cameras, intercoms, electronic entry systems and video recorders developed and manufactured by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua are in Australian government and agency offices, including the Defence Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. These cameras, located in at least 200 buildings will be taken down shortly.

Hikvision and Dahua are partly owned by China's Communist Party-ruled government.
 

China's Embassy to Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China's general response to such moves is to defend their high-tech companies as good corporate citizens who follow all local laws and play no part in government or party intelligence gathering. 

The US, in November, in a move to protect the nation's communications system, banned telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from several prominent Chinese brands including Hikvision and Dahua. 

Defense Minister Richard Marles said his department was assessing all its surveillance technology. "I don't think we should overstate [the seriousness]... but it's a significant thing that's been brought to our attention and we're going to fix it," Marles told BBC. Shadow Minister for Cyber Security James Paterson, who requested the audit said there is no way of knowing whether the data collected from these cameras are being handed over to Chinese intelligence agencies. 

Paterson also said that Hikvision and Dahua should not be supported on moral grounds too as these companies have been implicated in allegedly abusing the human rights of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.

--With PTI inputs