US-led backlash against China’s Huawei, Hikvision seen giving higher-cost rivals an opening to win contracts
- Concerns over the increasing market dominance of China’s tech giants have simmered over the years
- China’s companies have benefited from vast domestic market, comparatively low-cost labour force and established global manufacturing supply chains
Increasing resistance by the US and other governments to Chinese hi-tech companies, such as Huawei Technologies and Hikvision, is providing opportunities for suppliers from other countries to win business from their lower-cost competitors.
A Hikvision spokesman was quoted in the report as saying that the company has “never conducted, nor will conduct, any espionage-related activities for any government in the world".
Certis Group, a Singapore-based integrated security services company, is offering customers in Australia the choice of using surveillance cameras made by South Korean companies instead of Chinese equipment, according to Certis chief executive Paul Chong.
“So today, because of the resistance to Chinese companies, we also have Korean OEMs for our cameras,” Chong said in an interview in Singapore last month. “We have always kept warm with various vendors but now, because of our presence in Australia, we have to be quite sensitive and so we use Korean products more. But those who want rock-bottom prices, then Chinese products are still” the choice.
“We’ve always positioned ourselves as being vendor-independent, so if price is of a big consideration for you then sure the Chinese companies are some of the cheaper ones around,” Chong said. “But if you decide not to use a Chinese company, we have other products too.”
