building garrison world

Lin Jianghuai was once a fairly minor league player in the South China electronics business, manufacturing components for DVD players. Then:

As he followed the progress of the Iraq war, Lin was impressed with the police-oriented hardware deployed by occupation troops, such as the HIIDE (Hand-held Interagency Identity Detection Equipment) system, ..

"I really felt strongly that the police [in China] would absolutely benefit from such technology," Lin recalls. "Bush helped me get my vision."

And so Lin created a company called China Public Security and sought investment for the wider application of military surveillance technology to more general human inventory control. He got it from a range of US investment companies including the Pinnacle Fund, more of which later.

OK, so Lin’s got the money. He just needs the contract. Et voila!

Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.

Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.

Remind you of anything? Now, the Pinnacle Fund:

The Pinnacle Fund, as it happens, is a significant investor in US Homeland Security contractors, among them GVI Security Solutions, Inc, which specializes in large-scale surveillance. Not long ago, former Under Secretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson was named to the GVIS board of directors, joining such dubious luminaries as former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir and Nazzareno Paciotti, formerly of Pinkerton Investigations.

Field tested in a war zone. Funded by advanced capital markets. Adapted to civilian life in a dictatorship. Available soon to preserve your freedom. No, really, we insist...