I always feel like somebody's watching me
Yesterday a disturbing e-mail crossed my silicon from the Washington Post concerning China Security and Surveillance Technology, a corporation in China that will soon become part of the New York Stock Exchange. Today is my birthday in China, so I ran the firm's name in the index of China Daily, and came up with four pages of articles.
The notion of electronic surveillance and surveillance on the Internet has been launched as a formal campaign of the Chinese government. Referred to as the Beiging Internet Police, a cartoon pair of police in a stylized car will have the mission to be on the watch for websites that incite secession, promote superstition, gambling and fraud.
'"It is our duty to wipe out information that does public harm and disrupts social order," Zhao Hongzhi, deputy chief of the bureau's Internet surveillance center, said.”
There is a report that there are at least 265,000 surveillance cameras in Beiging alone. China Daily reports that “from recent reports, many cities in China have established extensive surveillance systems with the help of the latest technology including the Internet and satellite.”
Great Britain has asked China to develop technology; “hidden in lapels and hats, miniature cameras would allow spotters in the crowd to beam live pictures from inside the stadium back to a control room where the images could be scanned in real-time for troublemakers and hooligans.”
In addition, Israel investors will have the opportunity to buy into a Chinese firm “Mate Intelligent Video, a company that develops and sells video surveillance, content analysis and transmission, as well as management products for security, safety and retail applications,” China Daily reported in its business section.
It sure appears that electronic surveillance is big business in China, and soon Americans will be able to make a buck in this racket with the apparent blessings of our government, according to Harold Meyerson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post in his piece China's Hot Stock: Orwell Inc. That just scares the living frijoles out of me.