Millions of Dollars From US University Endowments, Foundations and Retirement Plans Have Helped Fund Two Billion-Dollar Chinese Facial Recognition Startups (buzzfeednews.com) 64
An anonymous reader shares a report: Princeton University and the US's largest public pension plan are among a number of stateside organizations funding technology behind the Chinese government's unprecedented surveillance of some 11 million people of Muslim ethnic minorities. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have detained more than a million Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in political reeducation camps in the country's northwest region of Xinjiang, identifying them, in part, with facial recognition software created by two companies: SenseTime, based in Hong Kong, and Beijing's Megvii. A BuzzFeed News investigation has found that US universities, private foundations, and retirement funds entrusted their money to investors that, in turn, plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into these two startups over the last three years. Using that capital, SenseTime and Megvii have grown into billion-dollar industry leaders, partnering with government agencies and other private companies to develop tools for the Communist Party's social control of its citizens.
Also among the diverse group of institutions helping to finance China's surveillance state: the Alaska Retirement Management Board, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Rockefeller Foundation all of which are "limited partners" in private equity funds that invested in SenseTime or Megvii. And even as congressional leaders, such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, have championed a bill to condemn human rights abuses in Xinjiang, their own states' public employee pension funds are invested in companies building out the Chinese government's system for tracking Uighurs.
Also among the diverse group of institutions helping to finance China's surveillance state: the Alaska Retirement Management Board, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Rockefeller Foundation all of which are "limited partners" in private equity funds that invested in SenseTime or Megvii. And even as congressional leaders, such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, have championed a bill to condemn human rights abuses in Xinjiang, their own states' public employee pension funds are invested in companies building out the Chinese government's system for tracking Uighurs.
The yellow menace must be stopped! (Score:1)
Knowing their weakness, we should send wave after wave of other people's children at them until they reach their kill limit and shut down.
Pumped in Millions to make Billions (Score:3)
Seems like a solid investment to me, sure, it's fucked up. But these financial managers don't do things based on morals.
Re: (Score:2)
You are mixing two different rumors (Score:1)
You are mixing up two different rumors.
It's was IBM punch card machines that may have been used for the census of the Jews. The IBM factory in Poland may or may not have been seized by the Nazis prior to this happening, there are no clear records. That's the census story.
Before WW2, a German man name Fritz Thyssen did some business with the German government. Thyssen stopped supporting Hitler as WW2 started and tried to escape from Germany. The Nazis caught him and put him in prison. Fritz Thyssen had also
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So what? These are funds that are supposed to generate income for the school so tuition can be lower (or quality / research higher, same thing).
If that's the best argument for them then based on tuition increases these should be disbanded immediately.
any University that funds chian should have loans (Score:1)
any University that funds china should have loans voided.
Hangmen (Score:2)
"[Capitalists] will sell us the rope with which to hang them!"
I guess nowadays we go beyond that as we're donating to the research of better ropes with which to hang...somebody.
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Everyone? Including me, who knew jumping into bed with China was a fucking disaster back when Clinton gave them MFN trading status?
Commies are evil. Full stop. It was true then, it's still true today and it's not going to stop being true in the future. But stupid fucking libbies think the US needs a rival so lets bend over for China and everyone else, and stupid fucking business people can't help but race to the bottom looking for the cheapest cotton pickers on Earth, so here you are; Orwell realized.
Before people go off the deep end... (Score:4, Insightful)
...Do some research and see what happened when institutions were boycotted until they stopped investing in South Africa back in the 1980's.
It was a literal mess with universities/companies telling people, "We can't just pull our money out. This isn't the stock market."
All the while selling their personal shares in the companies before they tanked.
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see what happened when institutions were boycotted until they stopped investing in South Africa
South Africa is turning into an epic shithole and will likely spend the next decade or two in chronic famine once they finish delivering justice to their productive farmers.
cha-ching (Score:1)
Little pieces of a much bigger picture.... (Score:2)
...is all some want to see and that is unfortunately a massive deception to themselves and others. Follow the money...i.e. where all the money from the 90's trillion dollar bet go? https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/... [pbs.org]
pass a law to stop sending tech out (Score:2)
Time to stop all that.
Silly WindBourne (Score:2)
Silly caffeinated bacon (Score:2)