Free Tibet protests 3 months ago allowed China to road-test a new security network before the summer Olympics, Naomi Klein writes in Rolling Stone. Under the so-called “Golden Shield,” China is now installing closed-circuit cameras nationwide linked to facial recognition and other biometric software—technology from big-name US firms like IBM, Honeywell, and General Electric.
Despite a ban dating back to Tiananmen Square days, Klein thinks post-9/11 America will happily import a version of Golden Shield once it's operational in China. "George W. Bush," a US-based consultant said, "would do what they are doing here in a heartbeat if he could." (More China stories.)