Some people believe that the government watches everything on the mainland. In Guangzhou, that’s not far wrong.
Guangdong’s capital has become one of China’s most closely watched cities, with a quarter of a million surveillance cameras monitoring roads, public facilities, companies and residential buildings.
The municipal Public Security Bureau reported that by the end of last year 2,700 surveillance centres were in place to help police tighten their control on crime.
Last week the provincial Public Security Department reported that it had handled more than 30,000 criminal cases last month, a 28.5 per cent increase year on year, and 486 economic cases, up by nearly 80 per cent.
Guangzhou is known for its poor public security record.
According to the security department, the system supplied law enforcers with more than 3,600 valuable clues, resulting in the arrest of about 1,900 suspects in more than 1,600 cases last year.
Police said that during the 2008 Lunar New Year holiday period, officers used the Guangzhou railway station’s 102 cameras to monitor and respond to a crisis when severe snowstorms in central China stranded up to 500,000 travellers at the station.
The report said that given that only one female worker was trampled to death in the days of huge crowds, the surveillance system had been a great aid to the government’s handling of the emergency.
Guangdong authorities started installing the cameras in 2005 in response to a prolonged crime wave gripping the province.
According to the media, by the end of June the province had invested 12 billion yuan (HK$13.62 billion) in the project and set up 892,300 cameras. The reports said the province planned to have a million cameras in place sometime next year.
Guangzhou deputy Communist Party secretary Zhang Guifang revealed in 2007 that the city had earmarked 3 billion yuan to install 250,000 surveillance cameras.
But a Guangzhou official with the camera installation office said the government would put only 1 billion yuan into the project, and some enterprises, such as hotels and parking lots, were expected to shoulder some of the cost, the reports said.
Although police support the surveillance system for its crime-solving help, there are public concerns that authorities are using the technology against rights activists.
“During our protests, we had to put on baseball hats and masks in order not to be filmed and recognised by the cameras in our community,” said a Guangzhou protester involved in a month-long demonstration against the construction of an electricity substation next to his apartment building.
There have also been reports of the system being used to invade people’s privacy. In May, state media reported that a surveillance camera that should have been trained on traffic was focused on the mostly female residents of Shenzhen’s Wang Ye Gardens apartment block.
Shenzhen police admitted later that two part-time traffic police staff had been fired for “violating the rules of camera use”.
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250,000 cameras watching you in Guangzhou
20 March 2009
Some people believe that the government watches everything on the mainland. In Guangzhou, that’s not far wrong.
Guangdong’s capital has become one of China’s most closely watched cities, with a quarter of a million surveillance cameras monitoring roads, public facilities, companies and residential buildings.
The municipal Public Security Bureau reported that by the end of last year 2,700 surveillance centres were in place to help police tighten their control on crime.
Last week the provincial Public Security Department reported that it had handled more than 30,000 criminal cases last month, a 28.5 per cent increase year on year, and 486 economic cases, up by nearly 80 per cent.
Guangzhou is known for its poor public security record.
According to the security department, the system supplied law enforcers with more than 3,600 valuable clues, resulting in the arrest of about 1,900 suspects in more than 1,600 cases last year.
Police said that during the 2008 Lunar New Year holiday period, officers used the Guangzhou railway station’s 102 cameras to monitor and respond to a crisis when severe snowstorms in central China stranded up to 500,000 travellers at the station.
The report said that given that only one female worker was trampled to death in the days of huge crowds, the surveillance system had been a great aid to the government’s handling of the emergency.
Guangdong authorities started installing the cameras in 2005 in response to a prolonged crime wave gripping the province.
According to the media, by the end of June the province had invested 12 billion yuan (HK$13.62 billion) in the project and set up 892,300 cameras. The reports said the province planned to have a million cameras in place sometime next year.
Guangzhou deputy Communist Party secretary Zhang Guifang revealed in 2007 that the city had earmarked 3 billion yuan to install 250,000 surveillance cameras.
But a Guangzhou official with the camera installation office said the government would put only 1 billion yuan into the project, and some enterprises, such as hotels and parking lots, were expected to shoulder some of the cost, the reports said.
Although police support the surveillance system for its crime-solving help, there are public concerns that authorities are using the technology against rights activists.
“During our protests, we had to put on baseball hats and masks in order not to be filmed and recognised by the cameras in our community,” said a Guangzhou protester involved in a month-long demonstration against the construction of an electricity substation next to his apartment building.
There have also been reports of the system being used to invade people’s privacy. In May, state media reported that a surveillance camera that should have been trained on traffic was focused on the mostly female residents of Shenzhen’s Wang Ye Gardens apartment block.
Shenzhen police admitted later that two part-time traffic police staff had been fired for “violating the rules of camera use”.
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