China Finds Eager Allies for Olympic Security

BEIJING — In preparation for the Beijing Olympics and a series of other international events, some American companies are helping the Chinese government design and install one of the most comprehensive high-tech public surveillance systems in the world.

When told of the companies’ transactions, critics of China’s human rights record said the work violated the spirit of a sanctions law Congress passed after the Tiananmen Square killings.

The Commerce Department, however, says the sophisticated systems being installed, by companies like Honeywell, General Electric, United Technologies and I.B.M., do not run afoul of the ban on providing China with “crime control or detection instruments or equipment.” But the department has just opened a 45-day review of its policies on the sale of crime-control gear to China.

With athletes and spectators coming from around the world, every Olympic host nation works to build the best security system it can. In an era of heightened terrorism concerns, it could be argued, high-tech surveillance will be an indispensable part of China’s security preparations for the Olympics, which runs Aug. 8 to 24. And given China’s enormous economic potential, corporations are always eager to get a foothold here; the Olympics provides a prime opportunity.

But China’s regime, the most authoritarian to hold an Olympics since the Soviet Union’s in 1980, also presents particular challenges. Long after the visitors leave, security industry experts say, the surveillance equipment that Western companies leave behind will provide the authorities here with new tools to track not only criminals, but dissidents too.

“I don’t know of an intelligence-gathering operation in the world that, when given a new toy, doesn’t use it,” said Steve Vickers, a former head of criminal intelligence for the Hong Kong police who now leads a consulting firm.

Indeed, the autumn issue of the magazine of China’s public security ministry prominently listed places of religious worship and Internet cafes as locations to install new cameras.

A Commerce Department official who insisted on anonymity said that the agency was reviewing its entire list of banned exports, including military equipment, although the sale of crime control gear to China is on a special, fast-track review. Asked whether equipment identified as commercial by Western manufacturers could have crime control applications, the official replied, “There may be users in China who figure out law enforcement uses for it.”

Multinationals are reluctant to discuss their sales to China’s security forces, but they say they have done everything necessary to comply with relevant laws.

Information is not easy to come by, but an outline of China’s mammoth effort can be found in interviews with engineers at the public security ministry’s biennial convention, in visits to Chinese surveillance camera factories and police stations, and in reports on China prepared for member companies of the Security Industry Association, a trade group based in Alexandria, Va.

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