Chinese cameras, how they got back into public procurement in Italy

For the Chinese video surveillance cameras doors reopen Italian public officesdespite international pressure to isolate Beijing in the field of technology. As anticipated by Wired in July, models produced by Dahuaone of the giants of the Dragon in the field of security systems, e configured by a company from Turin, Jbf, were included in device catalog chosen by new agreement for Consip video surveillancethe purchasing center of the public administration.

Municipalities, regions, universities, hospitals, museums or other branches of the state that in the coming months will have to renew or increase the fleet of security cameras, will be able to obtain supplies only through the Consip price lists. in which they are present at least two products made by Dahua, but present with the brand name of the Piedmontese Jbfalready identified by Wired at the bidding stage this summer.

The junctures of history

1. Plan B
2. A diplomatic issue
3. Public procurement in Italy
4. Look at the technical data sheets
5. Cybersecurity issue
6. Question marks
7. Final price

Italy turns a blind eye to Chinese cameras in public offices

The latest Consip tender for video surveillance does not place explicit bans. In contention there are also systems produced by Dahua, the giant of the Dragon. Which has a strategy for addressing any barriers to technology made in China

Plan B

Ended up on the blacklists of Western governments together with theanother champion of Chinese video surveillance, Hikvisionin Italy Dahua has decided to untie your name from the product. A “plan B” devised by the number one of the local branch of the group, Pasquale Totaro, as long as there are limitations to China and which gave its results precisely at the end of October, with the closure of the contract and the appearance on the digital shelves of the public administration of devices designed beyond the Great Wall.

Dahua’s commercial strategy has a name – NetShield – and was introduced to customers and sales agents this summer. The agreement with Jbf is the first step and, judging by the results of the Consip tender, it paid off. While not formally from a Chinese manufacturer, the Dahua cameras have been included in the price lists tender of eight lots out of a total of 10. Among which the most important, the one on which the central bodies of the State must draw: entrusted to Tim and Aprilia’s I&Si system integrator, amounts to 21 million euros, one third of the total value of the agreement (65 million euros). The contracts go, among others, also to Vodafone, Fastweb, Leonardo (the main Italian defense company) and Sicuritalia (which offers security services).

A diplomatic issue

Let’s rewind the tape. The appeal to Chinese video surveillance cameras it has been a political concern for years. To determine the success of the products made in China it is good value for money. However, when Beijing becomes a technological competitor to be isolated, the tide changes. And they shoot a series of countermeasures to block Chinese companies and infrastructure.

Even the security cameras they end up in the crosshairs, even though a malicious use has never been proven. Hikvision and Dahuathe two giants of the sector, become uninvited guests in the United States in 2019. In 2021 it is the European Parliament that votes the removal of Hikvision implants. In the UK, MPs are pressing for the government to crack down. Rowing against the Chinese cameras are political factors, risk profiles linked to the contiguity of these companies with Beijing’s military apparatuses, sensitivity on human rights in Xinjiang (the central region of China where the government persecutes the Uyghur minority, having resorted in the past also to cameras with facial recognition) and protection of the internal market.