Dahua was founded in 2001 by former defense industry technician Fu Liquan, who serves as the company's chairman and the Secretary of its Communist Party committee.

[19] During the same month, Dahua provided an electronic security system to processed food company Empresa Panamena de Alimentos (EPA) in Panama.

[25] Dahua Technology provided technical support and smart applications for Yellow Dragon Sports Center during the 2022 Asian Games.

[35] In June 2023, Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention included Dahua on its International Sponsors of War list for allegedly supplying military equipment to Russia.

[38] In October 2019, the U.S. government placed Dahua on the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List for its role in mass surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China.

[39][40] The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 barred the use of Dahua equipment in U.S. federal contracts.

[41] In March 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that Dahua services and equipment "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”[42] That same year, Sam Biddle of The Intercept reported that the U.S. government continued to purchase Dahua-manufactured equipment post-NDAA, raising questions about the effectiveness of the sanctions.

[43] In October 2022, the United States Department of Defense added Dahua to a list of "Chinese military companies" operating in the U.S.[44] After President Joe Biden signed into law the Secure Equipment Act of 2021, in November 2022, the FCC imposed an "Interim Freeze Order" on Dahua Technology for national security reasons,[45]: 106  effectively barring the sale or import of new equipment made by the company.

[52] According to its 2020 annual financial report, Dahua Technology is also partially state-owned by Central Huijin Asset Management and China Galaxy Securities Co., Ltd. at 1.05% and 1.82 respectively.

[54][55] In March 2023, Dahua sold $740 million in new stock to China Mobile, closing a deal which had been announced two years earlier.

[58] In 2017, Dahua partnered with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) to build a joint intelligent video laboratory.

[66][69][70] A vulnerability in most of Dahua's cameras allowed "anyone to take full control of the devices' underlying Linux operating system just by typing a random username with too many characters.

[72] Using a web browser, the vulnerability allowed unauthorized people to remotely download a device's database of usernames and password hashes and subsequently gain access to it.

"[77] In October 2021, TechCrunch reported that The Home Depot and Best Buy stopped selling Lorex-branded Dahua and Ezviz products.

[85] According to the investigation, Dahua provided a surveillance system that included "real-time Uyghur warnings" with the ability to sort people by ethnicity and skin color.