Thread: Congress Probes U.S. Spy Equipment Sales to China

Congress Probes U.S. Spy Equipment Sales to China

Friday, Feb. 1, 2008 10:48 a.m. EST

China — one of the most enthusiastic consumers of U.S. security equipment — may soon have to buy some of the products on its surveillance wish list elsewhere.
Instead of relying on people to inform the authorities about their neighbors' actions as it has traditionally done, China has started using high tech street-by-street surveillance systems, partly due to growing U.S. involvement in the Chinese marketplace as the 2008 Olympics approach.

Many of these systems are produced — with heavy financial backing from U.S. hedge funds — by companies incorporated in the U.S. but with virtually all of their employees located in China.

Chinese security agencies have been buying sophisticated computer biometric technology like face-recognition software because the increasing mobility of Chinese citizens is making tracking their movements increasingly difficult, The New York Times reports.

Uneasy with the idea that American companies might simply be handing China’s socially repressive government more effective ways of monitoring political and religious dissidents, the U.S. Commerce Department is redoing its rules about the kinds of security equipment American firms can sell to China.
The effort has drawn a good bit of attention from Congress, which banned the transfer to China of any equipment related to crime control after the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989.

Having controls in place that prevent U.S. exports from enabling other governments to repress fundamental freedoms is essential, notes Representative Edward J. Markey, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

"I will be watching closely as this process develops to ensure that current U.S. export controls are not weakened," Markey says.

Current controls permit exporting most surveillance equipment provided regulators believe it could be used in a factory or office complex and is not intended exclusively for police work.

Commerce spokesperson E. Richard Mills reports his department has begun drafting new rules. However, whether the redone regulations will tighten or loosen existing export controls remains unclear at this point because any regulatory changes that Commerce makes are subject to public comment and review by other government agencies.

Honeywell, GE, United Technologies, and IBM have all sought contracts to sell advanced surveillance equipment to China.

William A. Reinsch, President of the National Foreign Trade Council and former Clinton Commerce undersecretary, has expressed fears that new rules could hamper U.S. export opportunities for products that would then be supplied by European and Asian interests.

Part of the Commerce Department’s current effort will be to determine which products are available from non-U.S. based companies.

The new regulatory overhaul, which applies to very modest exports of crime-control equipment to totalitarian countries like North Korea as well as to China, is the first revision since the early 1990s.

A spokesperson for the Washington-based World Organization for Human Rights USA said the group will file under the Freedom of Information Act for detailed information on how Commerce is currently enforcing export policies.

The group is also considering suing U.S. firms and hedge funds involved in the Chinese security industry as well as those U.S. government agencies that allow such involvement.

http://moneynews.newsmax.com/money/arch ... 105133.cfm

Now look at me in my eyes and tell me that President Bush and the CFR arnt trying to take this country to it's knees

AirborneSapper7, Did I miss something? Should we not regulate the technologies that we sell to China and North Korea?

Originally Posted by roundabout

AirborneSapper7, Did I miss something? Should we not regulate the technologies that we sell to China and North Korea?

I think the answer to this question will come from common sense. We all know China is our enemy, not our friend. Why should we do business with them at all? Putting profits in front of common sense with regard to national security will only aid and abett this evil communist government.