Re: [TSCM-L] {1831} China and increased surveillance Part 1 of 3
reginal..._at_hotmail.com wrote:
> This is an article that was in the New York Times on 12/08/2007. Gives
> an idea where technology and policing are going.
> It is fairly long so I will send it in 3 parts.
>
> "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
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