Gated villages in China have always been symbols of affluence; spaces where the rich protected themselves from criminals and other undesirables.
But now the poor in Beijing are being locked inside their neighbourhoods at night, between 11pm and dawn.
Chinese officials call the project “sealed management” and claim the measure helps reduce crime.
Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports from Beijing.
China’s Green Dam Youth Escort Internet filter has been delayed due to manufacturers needing more time. Sony, however, not only has started to ship computers with the Green Dam already installed, they did it early as the deadline was not until Wednesday. The Green Dam has been accused of using stolen code and has serious security flaws.
While Chinese officials have claimed that the filter will help to prevent children from viewing porn or violence, it has been met with wide disapproval within China. It has been reported before that there is very little in the way of porn filtering and more of silencing political dissent.
Chinese internet users already endure one of the most heavily-censored and politically-controlled internets in the world, our correspondent says, and were furious about this additional control.
Foreign governments have complained that the new software could break trade rules, and concerns have been raised about its effectiveness and safety.
Chinese citizens will still manage to get around the security protocols, however, additional controls will require additional time to figure out how to get past the new Green Dam filter.
Tests carried out on Green Dam outside China indicated that it left personal computers open to many different security risks, including virus attacks.
It’s not surprising that the Chinese government wants more control over its citizens, however, it is curious why the Chinese government approved a system that allows a hacker to take control of the computers running the software. In a shrewd move, Sony did not ship their computers with the software installed. They merely placed the executable on the hard drive to comply with the Chinese government.
It was also reported that the group “Anonymous” threatened to attack the program tomorrow if it was implemented and that the Chinese government might possibly be afraid of such an attack.
Started in August 2007, the Chinese government began issuing computerized residency cards to its 12.4 million citizens in Shenzhen. It will also issue cards to over 150 million other Chinese who have moved but not yet established residency.
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.
While the cards are being described as a way to help prevent crime and control the population, particularly mobile peasants, there are privacy concerns over abuses of such a system.
“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.
Shenzhen is also using massive surveillance cameras in law enforcement, making the mandatory use of residency cards a convenient companion to the cameras.
Shenzhen already has 180,000 indoor and outdoor closed-circuit television cameras owned by businesses and government agencies, and the police will have the right to link them on request into the same system as the 20,000 police cameras, according to China Public Security.
Several years ago, this would have been all over the news as a human rights violation. But today, we have scared the general public into believing that such systems are not only necessary to prevent terrorism but are for our own safety. We can just brush this off as no big deal, because, you know, the United Kingdom has massive surveillance cameras and they’re a nice democracy.
