CSS to stop using products from Chinese company HIKvision
Having deliberated for a long time over what I’ve read, seen, and learned about what’s been going on in the People’s Republic of China, I can’t help but raise my head above the parapet.
This autocratic Chinese government has been up to quite abhorrent behaviour not only to minority groups but its own indigenous people. Also, I was taken aback by the lack of representation of senior female politicians at the Politburo meeting last week. It’s as if women mean nothing in top positions.
Due to the above reasons and our moral standpoint, our businesses will cease to use HIKvision products in favour of ethically resourced products where we can do so. This will no doubt put us in a weaker position in the CCTV market.
“Trying to do the right thing”
Having been in business for 36 years I have observed many changes. Over that time, our success has been defined by trying to do the right thing by our people and our customers and those longterm relationships have supported us by not just what something costs. The HIKvision products seem amazing but there’s a dangerous sinister side to them too. Seeing them assist in the herding and incarceration of innocents, they’re not for us. I hope our customers will understand the ethical decision my team and I have been chatting about for two years now.
The HIKvision rhetoric coming out of China isn’t washing. The HIKvision employees in the UK as well as I’m sure the general public in China can’t do anything about what we’re/I’m sure know is going on.
Our business is not against all things Chinese – far from it. Our discomfort is solely directed at the human rights issues in China and Hong Kong which HIKvision products seem to facilitate.
As a family business we believe that our sense of duty and care to others should be above profit. Our businesses will endeavour to ensure we meet our existing contractural obligations. However, new works in the course of 2023 will be more expensive and that will be hard but not as hard as the lives the poor Uyghur people as well as the people in Hong Kong are experiencing.
Finally, I’m not politically motivated at all. I’m just saying I do know what is right and what is wrong. This has been wrong for a long time. Quote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
Paul Connelly
CEO, Connelly Group Holdings
