In China, a High-Tech Plan to Track People
August 12th, 2007I thought the British fascists would have implemented this by now, but it looks like the Chinese fascists are going to try to take the lead. Also note the collusion between the Chinese and American firms.
Via: New York Times:
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 Shenzhen, 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 prosperous population at a time when street protests are becoming more common.
“If they do not get 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, Tex., Pinnacle Fund and Pinnacle China Fund. Three investment banks — Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach, Calif.; Oppenheimer & Company in New York; and First Asia Finance Group of Hong Kong — helped raise the money.
The UK uses a face recognition system for its cameras. They first trialled it in Newham in London over 10 years ago. Although it isn’t discussed I’m pretty sure it must have been implemented nation wide by now. They definitely do it with number plates. You can be followed round on camera any time you take a drive (Gave up my car 2 years ago) When I was doing software engineering years back I saw the beginnings of a system that would have taken the feed from any camera and depending on clearance would have forwarded it to any screen. So all you would do to find someone is feed their image into the database and tell the system to alert you when they show up on one of the networked cameras. Don’t know if they ever implemented it but I bet they did. Every demonstration or protest has its complement of police cameramen and have for years.
“‘If they do not get 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.”
Wow. Coming this summer, a little prototype of the future New World Order. Curious if anyone knows if Verichip will have a direct hand in the production of the cards, or simply a residual stake.
Anyway, here’s a nice newsletter from the corporation and Hu Jintao being the border ID system’s first victim. You have to wonder whether the people in charge are the movers and the shakers or the shaken and the moved.
http://www.chinapsh.com/n-in-11.htm