I like this kind of situation. Everyone’s excited to make money in China, especially with the Olympics coming up and all. So naturally, one of the big issues at this and any Olympics hence is security. Sounds like good news for companies like Honeywell and United Technologies, right? Well, not so fast. The problem with this here bonanza is that you’re talking about installing thousands of security cameras in China.

From the NYT:

When told of the companies’ transactions, critics of China’s human rights record said the work violated the spirit of a sanctions law Congress passed after the Tiananmen Square killings.

The Commerce Department, however, says the sophisticated systems being installed, by companies like Honeywell, General Electric, United Technologies and I.B.M., do not run afoul of the (American written) ban on providing China with “crime control or detection instruments or equipment.” But the department has just opened a 45-day review of its policies on the sale of crime-control gear to China.

Whoops! I’m curious exactly what the ban on providing China with crime control or detection instruments or equipment entails. One would think the 2,000-camera network in a neighborhood in Guangzhou, and the citywide network of 250,000 cameras to be installed prior to the measly Asian Games in 2010 (let alone the what will cooking for Olympic security), might somehow fall under the umbrella of said ban.

Not according to the Commerce Department:

The Commerce Department, charged with developing regulations that put the law in effect, stands by its rules. The department bars exports whose sole use is law enforcement, like equipment for detecting fingerprints at crime scenes. But video systems are allowed if they are “industrial or civilian intrusion alarm, traffic or industrial movement control or counting systems,” according to the regulations.

For their part the Chinese government would seem to be in agreement with the Commerce Department.

Olympics security spending increased rapidly this year, after China’s little-noticed decision last winter to create a nationwide “safe cities” program, establishing surveillance camera networks in more than 600 cities.

A table in the security ministry’s magazine suggested the number of surveillance cameras needed in each community, based on its size, international prominence and location — from 250,000 to 300,000 cameras in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai to 1,000 to 5,000 cameras for small towns and rural counties.