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Wall Street Funds Chinese Spy Upgrade

Hedge funds offer $150M helping hand to Beijing Big Brother

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 11, 2007 7:46 AM CDT

(Newser) – Wall Street money is fueling the high-tech upgrade of China's police state, the New York Times reports. US hedge funds have poured $150 million into Chinese surveillance companies that are developing the latest in government spookware, from face-recognition technology to behavior-recognition software that can spot a disturbance before it begins.

Top Chinese surveillance firms have incorporated in the US to make it easier to raise cash; some are even listed on the NYSE. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calls the alliance between China's surveillance industry and Wall Street “an absolutely incredible phenomenon of extreme corporate irresponsibility.”

A paramilitary police officer patrols near the portrait of late communist leader Mao Zedong on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007. China's ruling Communist Party will hold a major meeting in October that will set the national agenda for the next five years amid the challenge of staging the...
A paramilitary police officer patrols near the portrait of late communist leader Mao Zedong on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007. China's ruling Communist Party will hold a major meeting...   (Associated Press)
New York Transit System To Upgrade Security With $212 System
New York Transit System To Upgrade Security With $212 System   (Getty Images)
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"1984"   (Archive Photos)
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