Do U.S. Companies Support Big Brother in China?

Aug. 16, 2007— -- Amid the gleaming skyscrapers and towering cranes of China's second largest port city, the citizens of Shenzhen will soon look up to see 20,000 security cameras looking down on them.

Images of the city's 12.4 million citizens will be fed into computers powered by technology provided by a U.S.-financed company that will allow police to recognize faces and track criminals.

But critics warn that the cameras and software, combined with a planned electronic identity card, will allow police to track the movements of political and religious dissidents. Furthermore, some contend that companies providing such technology could be in violation of an American law that bans U.S. companies from selling security equipment to China.

The ID cards will be implanted with an advanced microchip that will store information about the holder's name, address, religious and ethnic background, employment history, criminal record and number of children, to help enforce the country's one-child per family policy.

Chinese security experts say the cameras and ID cards are part of a planned countrywide high-tech security network called Golden Shield, which, like similar systems in the West, could be used to prevent or investigate acts of terrorism.

Human rights advocates, however, worry that an integrated system, which combines the country's numerous databases and systems for keeping dibs on citizens, would allow the government the unfettered ability to track people.

The company providing the cameras and software, China Public Security Technology, is headquartered in Shenzhen, has offices in California, and was incorporated in Florida. It is being financed by several American investment funds and investment banks.

The company insists that it is providing a service to help detect crime and protect citizens, comparable to those systems employed in places like the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

"Our vision is to provide technologies to government entities to better serve China's citizens and better equip the police department to combat crime and provide security to the citizens it serves," Michael Lin, the company's vice president told ABCNews.com via e-mail.