The UK’s Health Security Agency has been using video surveillance technology from under-fire Chinese firm Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. at laboratories that conduct research into vaccines and deadly diseases, according to people familiar with the matter.
The UKHSA is based at Porton Down, a UK science hub in rural England that is home to two key government agencies focusing on defense and health, as well as other labs working in sensitive areas such as vaccine testing. In 2018, scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory -- run by the Ministry of Defence -- helped identify the nerve agent that left a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia hospitalized in critical condition.