Beijing reportedly asked Hikvision 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. Hikvision used its LinkedIn page to confirm it had won a tender for the project, but denied its products can analyse video streams to identify ethnic minorities. Within the 600 page tender is the outline of a system called the "Assisted Analysis Of Ethnic Minority Students" which is intended to support administrators' "Decision-making" and includes a feature that alerts administration to students suspected of fasting, according to IPVM. 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 tender. While reasons for observing fasting may vary, Beijing's repression of Muslims raises suspicions that China wants to watch tired and hungry students observing the holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful abstain from eating or drinking from dawn to sunset. Civil servants, students and teachers in the Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang have also received similar orders. Last July, Hikvision allegedly provided the Chinese government with technology that could identify members of the Muslim Uyghur population under a different $6 million contract. Hikvision denied the report claiming that identification functionality has not been available since 2018.