You Can’t Hide In China
Li Runsen, best known for leading Project Golden Shield, China’s intensive effort to strengthen police control over the Internet, took an additional title: director for China Security and Surveillance Technology, a fast-growing company that installs and sometimes operates surveillance systems for Chinese police agencies, jails and banks. Hedge fund money from the United States has paid for the development of not just better video cameras, but face-recognition software and even newer behavior-recognition software designed to spot the beginnings of a street protest and notify police. Yikes! The ties between China’s surveillance sector and American capital markets are starting to draw Washington’s attention. So what’s scary? A recent report in The New York Times about the development of surveillance systems in China by another company, China Public Security Technology, which, like China Security and Surveillance, incorporated itself in the United States to make it easier to sell shares to Western investors.
Wall Street executives also defend the industry as necessary to keep the peace at a time of rapid change in China. They point out that New York has begun experimenting with surveillance cameras in Lower Manhattan in places like convenience stores and automated teller machines. Over the last year, American hedge funds have put more than $150 million into Chinese surveillance companies. Executives of Chinese surveillance companies say they are helping their government reduce street crime, preserve social stability and prevent terrorism. They note that London has a more sophisticated surveillance system, although the Chinese system will soon be far more extensive.
China Security and Surveillance has been aggressively raising money in the United States, including $110 million in convertible loans so far this year from the Citadel Group. The company has used the money to acquire or make a deal to buy 10 of the 50 largest surveillance companies in China. China Security and Surveillance is involved in some of the most controversial areas of public security. The government is trying to clamp down on users of the cafes in order to discourage pornography and prostitution. Critics say the surveillance is aimed at catching democracy advocates, Falun Gong adherents and others the Communist Party regards as threatening, noting that rules for nightclubs are less rigorous. Here’s another great article on surveillance in America. The term “Revolution” will be eliminated in all Chinese dictionaries..
