In 2020, KKR’s Cue developed surveillance technology jointly with the state-owned Video National Engineering Laboratory (Zhuhai) Innovation Center 视频国家工程实验室（珠海）创新中心 (“Zhuhai Innovation Center”), according to Cue’s website post dated 4/2/2020. Additionally, Cue CEO Shi Kan’s personal company Zhuhai Zhongdun jointly developed surveillance technology with the Zhuhai Innovation Center in 2018 and 2019.
The Zhuhai Innovation Center is an arm of the Chinese government’s First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security 公安部第一研究所 (“First Research Institute”).
So what does the First Research Institute do?
“The First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security has been known as the ‘National Team of Cyber Security,’” according to a Beijing News story posted on the official Cyberspace Administration of China’s website on June 1, 2015.
The First Research Institute is the organ that designs and implements Skynet in Xinjiang working with the Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Read more on First Research Institute’s role in Xinjiang.
According to a January 2020 report commissioned by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the First Research Institute was formed in 1978 by China’s Ministry of Public Security, and it:
“has developed a range of surveillance technologies ranging from video cameras to computer network and internet surveillance tools…. The successors to these entities are responsible for planning and implementing technical mass surveillance methods for China’s public security apparatus today.”
China’s Smart Cities Development, January 2020
The Ministry of Public Security plays a governing role in the implementation and integration of China’s Smart Cities technology, and the First Research Institute develops video and facial recognition technology and standards for integration of Smart Cities data.
The First Research Institute runs NELIVA, the National Engineering Laboratory for Intelligent Video Analysis and Application, which formed the Zhuhai Innovation Center. Executives of Hikvision and Huawei serve as Directors of the NELIVA’s ruling Council. Both Hikvision and Huawei are deemed threats to U.S. national security as identified in President Biden’s U.S. Executive Order 14032 dated June 3, 2021.