China Looks at New Technology to Police Net

B E I J I N G, Nov. 8, 2000 -- Seeing gold in Chinese efforts to police the free-ranging Internet, foreign companies are rushing to sell Beijing the latest in law enforcement technology — from tiny cameras to code-breaking software.

At a trade show in Beijing today, some of the biggestnames in Web technology — companies that proudly attach themselvesoverseas to the Internet’s reputation for anarchy — peddled theirwares to crowds of police and security officials.

A saleswoman for computer-network giant Cisco Systems Inc. toldmen in dark blue police uniforms that her company was the worldleader in “fire walls” protecting electronic data.

“China is a large potential market for this kind oftechnology,” saleswoman Julia Ho said.

China’s communist leaders have approached the explodingpopularity of the Internet with ambivalence.

Must Meet Government Approval

They are keen to use the Web for education and business whiletrying to smother its potential to spread political dissent. JustTuesday, new rules were issued barring Internet sites from offeringnews not approved by the government.

In comments released today, the State Council InformationOffice, the Cabinet-level agency that will enforce the rules,explained the measures were needed to crack down on “sham” newsreports and rumors “misleading the masses, confusing publicopinion and creating chaos.”

The demands of policing China’s nearly 17 million Web users havecaught the interest of overseas companies who want to sell softwareto break coded messages and track users.

“It’s a very attractive area,” said Duncan Clark of BDA ChinaLtd., a media and Internet consulting firm in Beijing. “Foreignvendors want to sell to public security people.”

Fully a quarter of the approximately 50 Chinese and foreignvendors gathered at the Security China 2000 trade show focusedtheir efforts on the “Golden Shield Project,” Beijing’s ambitiousplan to build a nationwide computer network linking national andlocal police agencies.

Monetary Figures Rising

Though the project is still in its infancy, Chinese industryexecutives at the trade fair said the government has already spent600 million yuan ($70 million) on research, and the totalspending could run many times that.

Beijing envisions the Golden Shield as part database and partremote surveillance system.

One feature is quick access to registration records on everycitizen in China, while links to networks of small cameras inpublic places will cut police reaction times to demonstrations andother signs of trouble.

U.S. companies like Cisco and Sun Microsystems and Canada’sNortel Networks offered the “fire walls,” initially developed toprotect corporate computer systems from hackers and viruses, sayingthey could also shield police networks.

Some executives admitted that the systems are powerful enough tosift through millions of electronic messages for key words thatBeijing might find politically offensive.

Cyber Spying

China already uses such devices to block Web surfers fromviewing foreign news sites and those set up by exiled democracycampaigners and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Word in the industry is that Beijing wants to expand thecapabilities of what hackers derisively call the “Great Fire Wallof China.”

Government-owned Shenzhen Siyue Information System Co. has asoftware tailor-made for the police’s concerns. Company presidentYuan Quan maneuvered a computer mouse over an icon marked“foreigners” to click on another labeled “Falun Gong.”

Up popped a list of names and photographs. Fingerprints can beadded, Yuan said.

“You can store all sorts of information on criminals in here,”Yuan said. “Anything you need to keep an eye on them.”