{"id":899915,"date":"2026-09-21T09:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899915\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T09:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:32:23","slug":"australia-banned-these-chinese-cctv-cameras-now-theyre-turning-up-in-evs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899915\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia banned these Chinese CCTV cameras. Now they’re turning up in EVs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a year after hundreds of Chinese CCTV cameras were removed from federal government buildings over surveillance fears, cameras from the same company were back in Australia via a new brand of electric vehicle.<\/p>\n

The removal of cameras made by Dahua Technology from federal buildings and defence sites generated plenty of headlines<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

Less well-known is that as the surveillance company was being sanctioned around the world, it had pivoted to making cars.<\/p>\n

The brand Leapmotor came to Australia in 2024, competing as one of the most affordable EVs in the market.<\/p>\n

Another selling point was its technology, including a suite of cameras.<\/p>\n

In the Leapmotor C10 there are six cameras, providing a 360-degree view of the car’s surrounds and interior.<\/p>\n

Some of these cameras are made by Dahua, yet there’s nothing to stop the car being driven around some Defence sites or parked nearby.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Leapmotor’s cars, like many EVs, have cameras which take in all their surroundings. (Four Corners)<\/p>\n

Alastair MacGibbon, a former national cybersecurity adviser, said the microphones and cameras on an EV and some connected cars made them an ideal surveillance device.<\/p>\n

He said an EV parked strategically near a government building could record when staff enter and exit and map the times people work.<\/p>\n

“You can even determine when something important was happening based on changed patterns of employees,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Are there people that staff the watch office that are suddenly turning up at a time that means there’s a crisis happening somewhere, or that the government is scaling up to do something?<\/p>\n

“[It] establishes a mesh of video and electronic knowledge that is granular and when it’s taken in totality is almost a near perfect real-time picture of Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Alastair MacGibbon says Chinese-connected vehicles should be banned from military bases. (Four Corners: Ron Foley)<\/p>\n

One day in August, Four Corners visited a public car park in Canberra which sits between the headquarters of ASIO, the Department of Defence and the Australian Signals Directorate (Australia’s digital spy agency).<\/p>\n

It contained 22 EVs \u2014 almost half of which were Chinese brands.<\/p>\n

Chinese EVs on military bases<\/p>\n

Fears of Chinese EVs being used as real-time surveillance devices have seen them banned from military sites overseas.<\/p>\n

Last year in the UK, Chinese EVs and even those with Chinese components were banned from some sensitive sites and training bases.<\/p>\n

In one case the military demanded they park more than 3 kilometres away.<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says Australia has some restrictions in place.<\/p>\n

“I know of examples of people driving in with a different sort of connected vehicle and being told to have to park a long distance away,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So, the fact that you don’t have the blanket ban [in Australia] doesn’t mean you don’t have a whole lot of precautions that are taking place.”<\/p>\n

A cybersecurity expert hacked this BYD. It was too easy<\/a><\/p>\n

Four Corners asked a hacker to show what China’s top EV brand could see and do remotely.<\/p>\n

The Department of Defence declined to say what restrictions were in place for connected vehicles.<\/p>\n

Like Britain, China is wary of foreign EVs, particularly those owned by its strategic rivals.<\/p>\n

In 2021 China banned Teslas, even those made at a plant in Shanghai, from political enclaves and some defence sites.<\/p>\n

“I think this is one of the most telling data points that we should pay attention to,” said opposition Defence spokesman James Paterson.<\/p>\n

“If [China] think that’s a risk in their country, then how should we feel about products they make and run here?”<\/p>\n

Four Corners took a Leapmotor for a drive around Canberra.<\/p>\n

We drove the car through the Royal Military College, Duntroon, past ASIO’s headquarters and around the Russell Defence precinct.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Four Corners drives a Leapmotor to Royal Military College, Duntroon. (Four Corners: Ron Foley)<\/p>\n

“When it comes to Chinese-connected vehicles, they should be banned from any military base, any intelligence facility, or any other sort of sensitive site and critical infrastructure,” Mr MacGibbon said.<\/p>\n

Senator Paterson, a former chair of the parliamentary committee on security and intelligence, said security agencies were so worried about Dahua cameras they even removed those not connected to the internet.<\/p>\n

“It’s extraordinary to me that we’ve ripped out [many] Dahua cameras from defence bases \u2026 but we’ve allowed that same technology in a connected vehicle to drive around those bases with all their cameras, all their sensors, all their data collection.”<\/p>\n

Leapmotor, which has three models for sale in Australia, has previously said its ambition was to be the “Huawei of the automotive world”.<\/p>\n

According to documents filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Leapmotor has an ongoing procurement contract with a Dahua subsidiary which agreed to supply cameras, sensors and radars to the car company.<\/p>\n

Four Corners purchased a Leapmotor rear camera, which had the Dahua identifier (DH) as part of its labelling.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Leapmotor camera. (Four Corners: Nick Wiggins)<\/p>\n

China’s ‘large-scale electronic surveillance’<\/p>\n

While all connected vehicles pose a risk, Chinese EVs are viewed as more risky given Beijing’s record of surveillance and hacking abroad.<\/p>\n

In additions to this, its national security laws can compel Chinese companies to co-operate with authorities if requested.<\/p>\n

“I think most people would recognise that it’s a surveillance state and \u2026 it’s shown its interest in large-scale electronic surveillance, not just inside China, but out,” Mr MacGibbon said.<\/p>\n

“What we’re really talking about here is a national security issue caused by the aggregate number, hundreds of thousands of these vehicles, and soon to be the dominant type of vehicle sold in Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A year after its cameras were removed, Dahua began selling Leapmotor EVs in Australia. (Four Corners: Ron Foley)<\/p>\n

The modern range of EVs are driven by software, which is remotely controlled and updated.<\/p>\n

The concern is that this software can be used to turn on microphones or cameras in a car, without the knowledge of the owner.<\/p>\n

“[China] doesn’t need to hack these vehicles to make them into a listening device or a surveillance device \u2026 it’s a feature of the vehicle,” Mr MacGibbon said.<\/p>\n

Leapmotor did not respond to questions from Four Corners.<\/p>\n

Watch Four Corners’ full investigation, Asleep at the Wheel, tonight from 8:30 on ABC TV and ABC iview<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a year after hundreds of Chinese CCTV cameras were removed from federal government buildings over surveillance fears,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[468345,2095,64,63,22536,57214,99,27308,8046,2667,843,18078,512,468343,284,468342,468344,2458,3403,12683,18846,14839,8886,468346,46784,6465,27620,43135,25494,94419,14512,76287,36204,4206,75603,93284,28622,3122,15387,1055,2489,181897],"class_list":["post-899915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alastair-mcgibbon","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-automotive","tag-biden","tag-business","tag-byd","tag-camera","tag-canberra","tag-cars","tag-ccp","tag-china","tag-chinese-controlled-evs","tag-cybersecurity","tag-dahua","tag-dahua-technology","tag-data","tag-defence","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-ev","tag-four-corners","tag-hacking","tag-hikvision","tag-home-affairs","tag-huawei","tag-intelligence","tag-james-patterson","tag-laws","tag-leapmotor","tag-military","tag-ministry-of-defence","tag-national-security","tag-security","tag-sensitive","tag-surveillance","tag-telemetry","tag-tesla","tag-tony-burke","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-xpeng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}