RFA reported that, on June 21, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission held a national video conference on the “Sharp Eyes Surveillance Project.” The Commission made it clear that the goal was to have the Sharp Eyes Surveillance Project completed in rural regions by 2020 in order to achieve “full coverage, network sharing, real time availability, and full control.” Similar to the Skynet Project, which is a surveillance system covering the urban region, the Sharp Eyes Surveillance Project is the version for the rural region. Developed by Guangdong AEBELL Technology Group, the Sharp Eyes Project has the capability of monitoring activities of individuals living in rural areas with its control centers stationed in nearby villages, towns and counties. It uses an application installed on television sets or mobile phones and can mobilize the general public to watch the surveillance recordings to ensure full security coverage. In February 2008, the Sharp Eyes Surveillance Project was first incorporated into the top document that the Central Committee of the Party issued. Since then, it has been highly valued at the top level. According to an article that Legal Daily published in February, in Pingyi County in Lin Yi city of Shandong Province where the Sharp Eyes project was first launched, by the end of February, 360,000 surveillance cameras had been installed. In Shandong Province, 2.93 million surveillance cameras and 2,491 surveillance centers have been set up across the entire province. In Sichuan Province, by the end of December 2017, the Sharp Eyes Surveillance Project was completed in 14,087 villages with 41,695 cameras installed.
Source: Radio Free Asia, June 22, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shehui/wy-06222018105535.html