July 31,
2008: In preparation for the August
Olympic Games in Beijing, China has installed hardware and software in all
hotels, to make it easier for state security to monitor foreign visitors that
use the Internet. Some foreign owned hotels leaked the documents (orders from
the Chinese government to install the systems) to U.S. government officials,
who made it public. The foreign owned hotels in Beijing were threatened with
closure if they did not comply.
Years ago,
the Chinese government promised there would be open access to the Internet during
the games. This despite the fact that the Chinese Internet is designed to be
easily monitored by a huge (over 30,000 people) bureaucracy that does nothing
but monitor Internet use (and imprisons those who say anything the state does
not approve of.)
The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) has apologized to member nations for
China's failure to allow free access to the Internet during the games. The IOC
is meeting with Chinese officials to try and resolve this matter.
Meanwhile,
intelligence officials are trying to figure out what the Chinese are up to
here, as none of the facts presented so far fit together.
