Posted on 08/11/2007 10:47:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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 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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
America needs a unified identification card like REAL ID with imbedded chips to cut down on illegal immigration. /sarcasm
A PING to a future America?
it’s going to be real interesting when the people of China get tired of this s#!t and rise up and take out that little Government of theirs.....personally , I can’t wait.
“it’s going to be real interesting when the people of China get tired of this s#!t and rise up and take out that little Government of theirs.....personally , I can’t wait.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. Many people have predicted this but I don’t see any evidence that it might happen.
Americans value freedom but in many other places in the world (i.e., the Middle East and Asia) they don’t place much value in it. Not everyone in the world yearns to be free. Lots of them are happy just to be able to have an income, enough to eat, and a place to live. We see them as just miserably scraping by, but it’s perfectly acceptable to them.
Okie dokie then!
Sounds like a Sci-fi movie
Problem is......it ain’t so little.
The Chinese government has setup a web of civilian spies within every housing block, every neighborhood, every village.
The communist party has tracked their citizens activities for years...just in a crude manner.
Now that they’ve become so much more hi-tech (thanx to Congress and many others) they will solidify this web with yet another tool.
Thanks for the ping!
Nothing like having a willing test bed to perfect the system before bringing it back home. The money quote is here: “and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company”. I’m curious who this company is, and if there are any ties (direct or ‘indirect’) to the US government.
As soon as a read that, I thought of the Mark of the Beast in Revelation. It's not far-fetched to go from that to a RFID chip implant. Personally, I believe it will happen on a global scale after a massive disaster.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.