People often look the other way to make money, but is it ethical to stick your head in the ground and pretend evil doesn’t exist? Today we learn that American companies are helping China build the most comprehensive human surveillance system in the world. You know, because of the Olympics. First Google support’s China’s intellectual censorship for money, now Honeywell, General Electric, United Technologies and IBM are setting up China with a super surveillance system:

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 that Honeywell, General Electric, United Technologies and IBM are installing do not run afoul of the ban on providing China “crime control or detection instruments or equipment.”

With athletes and spectators coming from around the world, every Olympic host nation works to build the best security system it can. In an era of heightened terrorism concerns, it could be argued, high-tech surveillance systems will be an indispensable part of China’s security preparations. And given China’s enormous economic potential, corporations are always anxious to get a foothold here; the Olympics provide a prime opportunity.

But as the first authoritarian regime to host an Olympics since the former Yugoslavia in 1984, China also presents particular challenges. Long after the visitors leave, security industry experts say, the surveillance equipment Western companies leave behind will provide authorities here new tools to track not only criminals, but dissidents too.

Gee, I wonder if there are any technological national security ramifications to any of this? China is not an ally. Read it here: China finds U.S. firms eager allies on security.