China and increased surveillance Part 1 of 3

From: <reginal..._at_hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:24:07 -0700

"China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People
by Keith Bradsher

SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 9 - At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras
are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon
be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed
company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and
detect unusual activity.

Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across
Shenxhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with
powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued
to most citizens.

Data on the chip will include not just the citizen's name and address
but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity,
police record, medical insurance status and landlord's phone number.
Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement
of China's controversial 'one child' policy. Plans are being studied
to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases
charged to the card.

Security experts describe China's plans as the world's largest effort
to meld cutting-edge computer technology with police work to track the
activities of a population and fight crime. But they say the
technology can be used to violate civil rights.

The Chinese government has ordered all large cities to apply
technology to police work and to issue high-tech residency cards to
150 million people who have moved to a city but not yet acquired
permanent residency.

Both steps are officially aimed at fighting crime and developing
better controls on an increasingly mobile population, including the
nearly 10 million peasants who move to big cities each year. But they
could also help the Communist Party retain power by maintaining tight
controls on an increasingly properous population at a time when street
protests are becoming more common.

'If they do not the permanent card, they cannot live here, they cannot
get government benefits, and that is a way for the government to
control the population in the future.' said Michael Lin, the vice
president for investor relations at China Public Security Technology,
the company providing the technology.

Incorporated in Florida, China Public Security has raised much of the
money to develop its technology from two investment funds in Plano,
Texas., Pinnacle Fund and Pinnacle China Fund. Three investment banks
- Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach, California; Oppenheimer &
Company in New York; and First Asia Finance Group of Hong Kong -
helped raise the money.

Shenzhen, a computer manufacturing centre next to Hong Kong, is the
first Chinese city to introduce the new residency cards. It is also
taking the lead in China in the large-scale use of law enforcement
surveillance cameras - a tactic that would have drawn international
criticism in the years after the Tiananmen Square killing in 1989.
............."

Continued in Part 2 of 3.
Reg Curts/VE9RWC
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST