American companies selling hi-tech police equipment to China?
- April 26th, 2008
- 4 Comments
Did American companies violate U.S. law by selling hi-tech police equipment to the Chinese? The Old Gray Lady asks this today, examining a recent Chinese police equipment trade show held in Beijing where several American companies, including Motorola and DuPont, were notably present. (An old law going back to Tiananmen Square prevents American companies from selling police equipment to China.) On display: Kevlar bulletproof vests, advanced police radio systems, fancy protective boots and a device that “swiftly” copies the entire contents of a hard drive without leaving any trace of having done so. That one’s developed by Intelligent Computer Solutions, which is based in California.
This all comes just a few weeks after China’s crackdown on Tibet protesters, never mind the controversy surrounding the Olympic Torch relay.
Of course, all companies deny any wrongdoing, stressing that they haven’t broken any laws. Be that as it may, I wonder if it’s worth sullying a company’s image just to make a few dollars from the Chinese. Not trying to pull a Jack Cafferty or anything, but selling American-developed technology to be used by Chinese authorities, that doesn’t seem like it’d be too popular with Joe Sixpack.
anon (Who am I?)
7 months ago
Interesting!
Michael (Who am I?)
7 months ago
I don’t know why you call controlling a riot a crackdown? How would other countries control a riot and where is the evidence? Surely, I saw some photos of Nepalese police beating Tibetian rioters in Katmandu, but this was passed off as the Chinese beating the Tibetians. I’ve see Australian tourist Mike Smith witness Tibetians beating up protestors.
But after observing your article, finding CIA backing with the Dali Lama, and the Olympic chair committee telling all western powers to back off from harassing China it just seems the West seems scared of China. Its sorry to see that the Olympics was a great venue to bring East and West together and share some understanding. I hope the West will get educated instead of feeding off of paranoia from the media and I hope the media will stop creating fear in this world. What happened to responsible journalism. You want to know why China controls western media in their country? Its because they have a long history of twisting and demonizing China. When the west learns to practice objective journalism they will be welcome.
Don’t tell me that there is not media blockage or proprganda in the US. I don’t recall Frank Capra making romance movies.
Nicholas Deleon (Who am I?)
7 months ago
Why do you hate freedom so much?
-na
Paul G (Who am I?)
7 months ago
Picture shows the cough test being masterfully executed.