China reportedly uses smart cameras to identify fasting students in Muslim-majority province

US-based research group IPVM has accused Chinese video surveillance equipment company Hikvision of engaging with a contract to develop technology that can identify Muslim students that are fasting during Ramadan, based on their dining records.

The $9 million contract required the first phase of a “Smart Campus” system be built out for Minjiang University in the Fujian province.

In addition to knowing if a student is fasting, the Minjiang University smart campus project tracks and provides school management with extensive information on a person’s daily habits and life, according to the government tender documents.

This includes details on book borrowing, holiday destinations, passport use, student club activities, information about family members and where individuals stand on their application for membership to the Chinese Communist Party.

Cameras made by Chinese surveillance company Hikvision are deeply integrated into an intelligence program aimed at tracking and detaining Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, according to a report published last year in Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.