Helping Other Big Brothers Go High Tech

Dino writes "BusinessWeek has an interesting article about the export of high-tech equipment to China's security forces, and the dilemma that it creates. On the one hand, there is the desire to increase exports to a country with which there is a trade imbalance. On the other hand, we face a situation in which the technology can be used to track dissidents and unauthorized religions. Restrictions have been enacted since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to prevent exports intended to the Chinese security forces. However, the restrictions have been applied narrowly, and effectively prevent only low-tech exports such as handcuffs, helmets, fingerprint powder, and tear gas, while DB software, two-way radios, DNA analysis gear, and video probes, are allowed."

Comments

THEY NEED THAT DNA ANALYSIS EQUIPMENT

[CmdrTaco (troll)]

They need to make sure blood on the bullet matches up so they don't bill the wrong family.

Perception & reality

[EmbeddedJanitor]

There is little evidence of companies caring much in the past (IBM & Nazis etc), and I doubt they will care in the future either. Very few will put ethics before a sale.

However, they do care about how they are are perceived to be acting because negative press can get in the way of other sales, so they might not sell to Chine etc if they think that might hurt selling to a more lucrative market. Don't for a minute confuse that with genuine ethical feelings though.

Re:Very Interesting Rewording

[ajenteks]

Maybe the implication is that America itself is a big brother? The wire-tapping crap alone that's been going on lately sure makes it seem like that could be the case.

US Big Brother

[mulhollandj]

It is interesting how much we blast China for not giving freedoms to its citizens. Do not US citizens realize the same thing is happening to them?

Re:Unauthorized Religions

[Chris Burke]

David Koresh's cult didn't get in any trouble until it was thought that they were breaking laws. The existence of the cult itself was not illegal. If you rape children, force people to commit "suicide", or don't pay your taxes, Uncle Sam will come after you. Other than that, they don't really care. Sure, you can say there may be some aspect of some religion that is illegal and that it shouldn't be -- multiple wives, use of mind-altering substances, whatever -- but it isn't the religion itself that is illegal. Raeliens, despite being considered a cooky cult, have not been arrested simply for being Raelien.

That's the difference. In China, being a member of a certain religion, regardless of not having committed any other crime, is illegal.

Now I'm not one to appologize for the U.S., and I think "better than China" is damning with faint praise, but this really is a fundamental difference between the two nations.

Real useful law

[Dan East]

However, the restrictions have been applied narrowly, and effectively prevent only low-tech exports such as handcuffs, helmets, fingerprint powder, and tear gas

I'm sure that really makes a big difference. You know, since China is such a small country with few resources, there's just no way they could manufacture stuff like that domestically. Yeah, I know, it's the principle of it all (or, in other words, a bill a politician could sponsor to make them appear moral).

Unfortunately far too many laws are created so politicians can simply be seen doing something. Sort of like in our town, where a lady was killed in a car accident a few years ago (because her cat was loose in her car and she was messing around with it and pulled out in front of a truck), so the town quickly changed the intersection to a 4-way stop. Now hundreds of drivers are inconvenienced daily just because the local government wanted to do something the newspaper could write about.

Dan East