- Making good on its promise to "achieve a global
presence," Digital Angel Corporation - manufacturer and marketer of
high-tech, implantable devices for tracking human beings - has opened a
research and development facility in Shen Zhen, a special economic zone
near Hong Kong, hoping to cash in on vast markets in China and the Far
East.
-
- As WorldNetDaily first reported, Digital Angel is a
sophisticated,
miniaturized tracking device intended by its manufacturer for subdermal
implantation in large numbers of human beings. After heavy publicity, the
manufacturer last year deflected criticism from privacy advocates and
Christians
concerned over biblical prophesy by removing all references to human
implantation
from its website and literature, only to re-introduce human implantation
- with a product called VeriChip - after Sept. 11, due to the nation's
new preoccupation with security.
-
- Dr. S.G. Chen, with more than 15 years experience in
high-level research and development, will lead the Chinese facility, which
will be part of the Applied Digital Research Group. This new office will
oversee production of Digital Angel products and carry out research and
development of new products of the Applied Digital Research Group.
-
- Also serving as a sales and marketing office, the
facility
will coordinate efforts in three northeast provinces of China.with
joint-venture
partner Shenyang Duouyuan Digital Communications Net Corporation.
-
- "This new facility and the additional strengthening
of our Research Group is a key move in furthering our position as the
preeminent
advanced digital technology development company," commented CEO
Richard
Sullivan on the new plant. "Dr. Chen and his team will have immediate
access to our OEM partner in China for existing Digital Angel products
and the development of new technologies as well."
-
- Sullivan believes this direct access will ensure the
partner meets "our aggressive production needs." The Shenyang
Duouyan Digital Communications Net Corporation provides the main facility,
equipment and working capital to manufacture, promote and distribute
Digital
Angel products in the three northeastern Chinese provinces.
-
- The Chinese program will follow the company's usual Phase
1- Phase 2 approach. Phase 1 of the partnership will be deployed in the
second quarter of 2002 and focus on Digital Angel applications for the
shipping industry within the targeted geography.
-
- Phase 2 will focus on people and medical applications
of Digital Angel for the region, which comprises roughly 15 percent of
China's 1.3 billion people.
-
- "We are truly impressed with Digital Angel
technology
and look forward to this joint venture," said Shenyang Duouyuan's
president, Chen Zhen. "We believe Phase 1 revenues from tracking and
monitoring logistics for over 10 million shipping containers transporter
within our rapidly expanding industrial region, could potentially exceed
$200 million annually within the first 2 years of deployment."
-
- The emergence of Digital Angel has met with protests
from civil libertarians in the United States who are concerned over
potential
involuntary applications of injectable tracking chips. But an area of even
greater concern may be its use in China. After all, China currently has
one of the world's worst human rights records. Over the years, human rights
organizations like Amnesty International, Freedom House and the Laogai
Research Foundation have documented widespread persecution in China of
political dissidents and religious persons. Such persecution routinely
includes surveillance and arrest of innocent persons who are then sent
to slave labor camps, mental hospitals or "re-education"
facilities.
-
- Time will tell if the injectable chips will be used
eventually
to track the movements of dissidents, in order to round up friends, family
members and locate secret meetings. Recent news reports have documented
Christian believers using cell-phone codes to arrange secret prayer
meetings,
and the rural government officials committing protesters to psychiatric
facilities where they are "treated."
- ___
-
- The April issue of Whistleblower - titled "BRAVE
NEW WORLD: Welcome to the era of implanted chips, universal surveillance,
man-and-machine hybrids and the end to your privacy - is available at WND's
online store, ShopNetDaily.
-
- Sherrie Gossett is a Florida-based researcher and writer,
formerly with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and a contributing reporter
to WorldNetDaily.
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