Saturday, December 29, 2007
China's 1984: The Olympics as an instrument of oppression
The New York Times ran an article in its business section yesterday that received far less attention from the blogosphere than it should have. China is using the security requirements of next year's Olympic games to justify the installation of millions of surveillance cameras all over the country and the acquisition of sophisticated systems to monitor those cameras. Of course, the Olympics and related tourism will last, all in, a few months. Nobody believes that China's police state will remove those cameras once the supposed security threat diminishes. Instead, they will become the center of the most Orwellian surveillance system in the world.
Several large American companies, including Honeywell, General Electric, IBM, and United Technologies, are participating in the project, which apparently at the moment does not violate the letter of any American law. I am sure that makes David Cote, Jeff Immelt, Samuel J. Palmisano, and George David sleep well at night. It will not stop me, however, from selling my miniscule holdings in Honeywell and General Electric.
Regular readers know that I am not particularly sanctimonious when it comes to public companies doing business with bad governments, and am generally contemptuous of politicians who bash "corporations." This project, though, has the potential to change the character of the largest society on the planet and choke off such aspirations that the Chinese people may have to choose their own government. These systems will become an instrument of oppression in China as surely as God made little green apples. Do these great American companies really want to participate in a project that will inevitably result in an extraordinary amount of human suffering?
7 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Dec 29, 10:59:00 AM:
I don't disagree with your sentiment or your stock sell-off. I do have a question though in terms of your evaluation of the impact of this on the advancement of Chinese freedoms. How does this compare with whatever reliable estimates there are of surveillance cameras (public and private) in the US of A? Can you provide stats?
By 
TigerHawk, at
Sat Dec 29, 11:28:00 AM:
I'm sure there are a great many cameras in the United States, and far more in England. The cameras are not inherently threatening; the problem is that China's government is oppressive and how will have a powerful new tool at its disposal. If China were a liberal democracy with an independent judiciary and a long track record of respecting the rights of the accused, nobody would care. Nor should they. But it is a police state. The systems being sold by the American companies will make it much harder for Chinese reforms to turn their country into something other than a police state.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Dec 29, 11:45:00 AM:
"in an extraordinary amount of human suffering?"
Melodrama.
Meanwhile, from the BBC:
"Hong Kong's chief executive has said Beijing will allow the special region's people to directly elect their leader by 2017 and their legislators by 2020."
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7163758.stm
Will it happen? Probably.
Two steps forward, one step back--that's China.
By , at
Sat Dec 29, 12:53:00 PM:
Fascism is a word that has received a strange connotation based on the particular bad form of fascism that occurred in Nazi Germany, and all the concommitant horror and atrocities.
But fascism is what it means when the people (and/or their 'leaders') accept government authority to control and manipulate their lives, "for the commom good".
China has progressed from the ignorant peasant led revolution (led by the blood thirsty Mao) to a more controlled but regimented "public state" of fascist China. This is how they manage the strange marriage of a 'communist' central government and something of a capitalist free-market economy.
Singapore has done something of the same thing, and they are either admired or reviled, depending on your political viewpoint.
It's a strange schizophrenia, but is seems to work well, especially in the East. I guess they never read Rousseau and Hobbes, eh?
Liberty, personal liberty, personal freedom, personal responsibility, may become anachronisms of the 20th century; passe' in the New World Order.
So cameras in China, the UK, and elsewhere, are just the coming thing. And sure, if there's money to be made, big companies will sure be in it to make a buck.
Hurrah.
-David
By , at
Sat Dec 29, 03:06:00 PM:
how much more repressive can they get ?
it seems to me, china is transitioning from marxist socialism to nationalist socialism. what that portends for the world is anyone's guess.
By , at
Sat Dec 29, 06:02:00 PM:
Perhaps we need a 21st century version of the Magna Carta. The old one is quite worn out, and our U.S. Constitution is well frayed.
Sadly, I think our grand country is descending into fascism. No, not just Jorge Bush, but the whole lot from local, through state, and onto federal. I think a constitutional convention is something to fear, but can we wait much longer? Then what what would come out of such a convention?
We have a sad lot of candidates for President in 2008. None, in my opinion will improve our state. Ron Paul supporters, take a hike, he is not going anywhere.
By , at
Sun Dec 30, 11:47:00 AM:
do you have any evidence to back that up ? do you even know the meaning of the word ? let me help:
a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
now if that is how you see this country, you need to put the pipe down. if anything, bush has created an inverse fascism.
