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January 26, 2011

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Urumqi is watching you

THE municipal government of northwest China's Urumqi City plans to put the entire city under surveillance by installing tens of thousands of cameras. The city was the scene of deadly riots 18 months ago.

Nearly 17,000 cameras were installed last year, enabling police to monitor an additional 2,109 public venues, head of the municipal government's information technology office Wang Yannian said.

Camera coverage will extend this year, Mayor Jerla Isamudinhe told the annual meeting of the city's legislature.

Currently, 3,400 buses, 4,400 streets, 270 schools and 100 shopping malls are under surveillance, Wang said.

Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was rocked by China's worst riots in decades in July 2009. The violence left 197 people dead and 1,700 injured.

Overseas terrorists and splittists were believed to have masterminded the riots, but the local government's failure to quickly detect and deal with the threat was also criticized.

Wang said that new, high-definition cameras would allow "seamless" surveillance of sensitive places.





 

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