China's minister of public security, Li Runsen, is also a director of a U.S. incorporated company, China Security and Surveillance Technology (CSST).  Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson comments that the Chinese police state provides almost unlimited investment opportunities for our hedge funds.

CSST, according to Terence Yap, its chief financial officer, produces security cameras and computer software that can monitor crosswalks -- to ensure that demonstrations aren't forming -- and cross-check the faces of Internet cafe users against photos of known troublemakers.

An authoritarian government can never be sure how many of its citizens would relish its demise, which means the Chinese Communist Party has 1.3 billion potential targets for surveillance. Bradsher reports that 660 Chinese cities have begun installing high-tech surveillance systems. By one estimate, high-end surveillance will expand from a $500 million industry in 2003 to a $43 billion industry by 2010.

CSST has received $110 million in convertible loans from the Citadel Group, a Chicago-based hedge fund, which it has used to buy up smaller Chinese surveillance companies. Some Wall Street executives have even defended their investments by equating the Chinese surveillance system with the surveillance cameras of London and New York.

Our national interest or globalization.  Which wins?

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, "It's not appropriate to interfere in the private decisions of Americans to invest in legally incorporated firms." 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment