China Is Scary

This month’s RollingStone featured an article by Naomi Klein entitled “China’s All-Seeing Eye”. In the article, China’s obsession with surveillance technology was discussed, as well as what the U.S. is doing to aid it, and what we’re not doing to stop it. It was a lot to take in, but I feel there was a lot of information worth sharing. Below is my attempt to break it down in a way that’s easy to understand while keeping the facts in check. (Click here for the full article)

Shenzhen – A city in China with a population of 12.4 million people. 30 years ago this city did not exist. The city was built as an experiment, 1 of 4 areas in China where capitalism would be permitted while under the eye of the Communist Party.

Shenzhen makes iPods, laptops, sneakers, televisions, cell phones, jeans, furniture, cars, printers, etc. It has 9 Wal-Marts, and multiple U.S. fast-food chains line the streets.

Huawei is China’s telecom giant. Their research complex is so large that it has its own highway exit and city bus line for its employees.

As the Olympic Games in Beijing grow nearer, Shenzhen is being used as a testing ground for new surveillance equipment. In the last 2 years over 200,000 cameras have been installed, many hidden in lampposts. All of these cameras are on the same network, allowing the government to watch the entire city. In the next 3 years 2 million more cameras will be installed in Shenzhen.
- China’s surveillance camera market generated over $4 billion dollars last year.
- China’s government has ordered that all Internet cafes, restaurants, and entertainment venues install cameras with direct feeds to local police stations.

Golden Shield – China’s all-encompassing security network, with an end-goal of being able to watch its citizens through people-tracking technologies, thus preventing any uprisings before they can gather momentum. This network is made possible, in part, by U.S. companies such as IBM, Honeywell, and General Electric.

Citizens will be monitored on phone calls, be subjected to voice-recognition technology, have their Internet access limited by China’s “Great Firewall”, and have a national ID card with a computer chip storing personal info, as well as a photo, which can be uploaded at police stations. When Golden Shield is complete, there will be a database with information pertaining to all of China’s 1.3 billion citizens.

Golden Shield was recently tested during the riots in Tibet. China was able to limit, and in some cases, completely shut down Internet access. Outgoing calls were blocked, and police were actually able to text message citizens telling them to behave. The police later used surveillance footage from lamppost cameras to make a “highlight” reel of the most violent rioters contrasted with footage of police behaving with level-headed restraint. This propaganda piece was shown repeatedly on national news programs, and a most-wanted list of Tibetan rioters was compiled.

Ministry of Public Security in Beijing – is staging a “10-Million-Faces Test”. Companies in China will compete to see whose software is best able to implement face-recognition technology. The winners will be awarded fat government contracts and guaranteed business for years to come as their software is integrated with other Golden Shield Technology.

L-1 Identity Solutions (their web site is fucking sci-fi, Minority Report, Tom-Cruise-jumping-up-and-down-on-the-couch-crazy!) – Connecticut-based defense contractor. Maker of passports and biometric security systems. Former CIA director, George Tenet, is a board member. Thanks to government contracts, their expected 2011 revenue is over $1 billion.

L-1 has licensed its technology to a Chinese company called Pixel Solutions. Pixel Solutions, with the help of L-1’s software, hopes to be a winner in the 10-Million-Faces Test. This relationship may, or may not, be illegal in the U.S. After Tiananmen Square, the U.S. made it illegal for companies sell “crime control or detection instruments or equipment” to China. Because the U.S. government could not foresee such technology such as face-detection software, the L-1/Pixel Solution relationship has been allowed to exist.

L-1’s presence is China’s emerging surveillance markets is worrying because of what they do in the U.S. L-1 makes passports, takes finger prints of visitors to the U.S., supplies biometric equipment to U.S. soldiers, maintains our State Departments “largest facial-recognition database system”, and producers driver’s licenses in a handful of states.

L-1 is now offering a program called “Fly Clear” that will relieve people from waiting on long lines at the airport. To enroll in the program, one must get their fingerprints taken, their irises scanned, and carry a biometric chip with their personal info.

U.S. Companies Involved in Aiding or bowing down to China:
IBM, Honeywell, and General Electric have sold equipment and technology.

Google has made a special Chinese search engine that filters “sensitive” material.

Cisco has supplied hardware for the “Great Firewall”.

Microsoft has removed politically-charged blogs at Beijing’s request.

Yahoo has relinquished email-account info which led to multiple arrests, including that of a well-known journalist.

Chinese Companies of Note:
FSAN CCTV System makes 400,000 security cameras a year, half of which are exported to cities such as Manhattan and London.

China Security & Surveillance Technology has developed software to alert police when a large group of people have suddenly gathered.

Aebell Electrical Technologies has an English brochure to advertise their security cameras. The brochure features American iconography, including the New York skyline prior to 9/11. They’ll be going public on the Nasdaq by year’s end.

Misc.:
- “The U.S. currently has more people behind bars than China, despite a population less than a quarter of its size.”
- “The global homeland security business is now worth an estimated $200 billion – more than Hollywood and the music industry combined.”
- The Defense Department once tried to implement a plan similar to China’s Golden Shield. It was called “Total Information Awareness”, and a top executive at L-1 has a plan called “Operation Noble Shield.”

It’s amazing that we can stage a war with the intent of bringing democracy to a country, yet there are huge U.S. companies willing to alter their product to meet China’s undemocratic demands. In the U.S. we don’t care about democracy as much as we care about money… or Clay Aiken’s artificial insemination baby... Or how “Sex and the City” did at the box office (it beat “Indiana Jones”).