Wednesday, November 25, 2009

China is Listening

The Chinese government wants to make the use of eavesdropping in corruption investigations legal, according to today's China Daily. Now, take a second to think about that sentence again.

You're probably thinking, but China already spies on its citizens, why would they need to make it legal? Law professor Zhu Wenqi says, "The current law does not specify whether it is legal and I think they are illegal measures as they are offences to people's privacy." I'm fairly certain that if the law doesn't specify it, it's legal as far as the Chinese government is concerned. And when was the last time the CCP cared about other people's privacy?

Apparently, the government wants to be able to use a variety of methods to catch corrupt politicians and businesspeople. "In addition to wiretaps and eavesdropping, modern methods such as lie-detector tests, hypnosis, mail checking and satellite locating are also included." Wait a second...since when is hypnosis a modern method of gathering evidence?

The lesson here is, if you're living in China you should watch out for Big Brother Hu listening in on your conversations. I'm sure the CCP enjoyed my mundane weekly conversations with my parents.

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