Cisco will be one of the major partners of the Chinese Government in the creation of a video surveillance system consisting of 500,000 cameras located in the city of Chongqing. The official program named tranquil Chongqing purpose is to combat crime, but the associations for the protection of human rights argue that it is a way more easily follow and stop political dissidents, according to the Wall Street Journal estimated that it could be one of the largest surveillance video systems of the world.
The city of Chongqing has an area of over 82,000 km2. For comparison, this is two times larger than the Aquitaine region. According to the daily, Cisco should provide, in this project, the network equipment needed to operate a system of broad monitoring and complex. U.S. law prohibits export to China of some tools that could be used for repressive purposes. It is for example the case of fingerprint readers. Nevertheless, the associations are up in arms for the lack of relevance of the Act does not prohibit the export of cameras or software censuring Internet.
Cisco refuses to comment and says only that it did not sell cameras or video monitoring solutions. This case tarnishes nevertheless a little more his picture while he was charged last may provide equipment used by the Chinese Government to capture members of the religious movement Falun Gong (cf. "Cisco accused of helping China to block Internet"). It would not however the only American to participate in the operation. HP could sell servers and storage solutions.
The project should cost 2.2 billion (CA. 1.5 billion euros). Only $ 800 million would come from the Government (CA. 500 million euros). The 1.6 billion (EUR 1 billion) still would be from sources that have not been disclosed.
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