Bain Capital, the private equity firm that Mitt Romney helped found, is playing a major role in China’s effort to spy on its citizens.

 

Uniview Technologies, a Chinese company owned by Bain, has provided surveillance cameras to the government for its Safe Cities program, which allows officials to monitor university campuses, hospitals, mosques and movie theaters.

 

While the Communist government contends the surveillance system is used to combat crime, human rights advocates argue that the cameras are also used to watch and intimidate political and religious dissidents.

 

Bain purchased Uniview Technologies last year using a fund in which a Romney family blind trust has holdings. When asked about the connection, Romney brushed it aside and blamed Democrats for spreading the story. John Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also owns a stake in Uniview through funds invested by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Firm Romney Founded Is Tied to Chinese Surveillance (by Andrew Jacobs and Penn Bullock, New York Times)

Romney Responds to Bain's Reported Ties to Chinese Surveillance (by Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times)

John Kerry Tied to Controversial Bain Capital Investment (by Tom Hamburger, Washington Post)