An increasing number of cameras can be been in public places throughout China’s major cities. According to an Associated Press report, the daily video input from these cameras is saved in computers and used in conjunction with facial recognition software to identify wanted or “politically sensitive persons” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Mr. Wang, a computer technician in Zhejiang Province, said, “The surveillance cameras have not only been installed on main roads, but also on side streets and in some large buildings in cities. They look like television monitors but in actuality they are [surveillance cameras which have] hard disks installed inside. Someone takes the hard disks and analyzes the recorded videos every day.”
Mr. Wang also stated that the Chinese police have installed a lot of hidden cameras, making people feel that they are being monitored by the authorities at all times. “There is a hidden camera, which can actually rotate, installed at the upper left corner of the glass on the back wall of the store which I work in. It looks like a small light bulb and is difficult to notice as it’s behind glass. I didn’t even spot it until a friend told me about it. This is a serious violation of citizens’ privacy rights. The authorities cannot guarantee that any of these videos can be kept confidential or destroyed [after being viewed daily],” said Mr. Wang.
Surveillance Cameras Not Proven Helpful to Maintaining Order
China’s Ministry of Public Security claims that the cameras are helpful to maintaining social order. However, the police department in London, which has 4.2 million closed circuit TV cameras, admitted that the cameras has done little to keep the peace in local areas.
Mr. Gao Guangjun, a lawyer practicing in New York and a former teacher of Chinese People’s Public Security University, said that “the traditional ways Chinese police use in detection have become increasingly ineffective. It is very important for them to adopt new technologies, including video cameras. However, in the meantime, a lot of privacy issues have become evident. We all know that the Chinese authorities don’t respect basic human rights.”
In fact, actual security situation in China has not improved at all since the authorities started installing a larger number of surveillance cameras in 2003. Over the five-year period from 2003 to 2007, the number of criminal suspects who were approved for arrest by China’s security organs increased by 20 percent, according to China’s official statistics.
