This link from my friend Kevvie. Over 10 million Chinese citizens will be issued with biometric identity cards this month, in a new security scheme that has commenced in the city of Shenzhen. China already has a national identity card system, but the government is seeking to broaden its tracking abilities by issuing a new card that will be used to record specific details about a person, including their ethnicity, religion, medical history and financial details. The city of Shenzhen is also having 20,000 CCTV cameras installed which will be equipped with facial recognition software, enabling the government to keep a close eye on the city's 12 million inhabitants. Chinese police officers in the city are also receiving GPS units that will beam their precise location at any given time back to police headquarters, and officers that are indoors will be tracked through the triangulation of their mobile phone signal. What is most controversial about the new scheme is the company that is running it all, China Public Security, a firm based in Florida and funded by American corporations.   

Quote: "Both steps are officially aimed at fighting crime and developing better controls on an increasingly mobile population, including the nearly 10 million peasants who move to big cities each year. But they could also help the Communist Party retain power by maintaining tight controls on an increasingly prosperous population at a time when street protests are becoming more common. "If they do not get the permanent card, they cannot live here, they cannot get government benefits, and that is a way for the government to control the population in the future," said Michael Lin, the vice president for investor relations at China Public Security Technology, the company providing the technology.

President Bush is aiming to introduce a national identity card scheme by the end of 2008, and Britain's Labour government is pushing for a similar card to be introduced not long after that. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has virtually stated that the country has no other option, that this biometric identification scheme is the future and to oppose it is to oppose technological progress. But as we can see with the Chinese trials, this progress seems to be coming more and more at the expense of our personal freedoms. We've already seen what the Chinese government does when it obtains information on illegal Christian gatherings. How can we guarantee that the US and UK governments will act any different? Evangelical Christians in the UK are already being regarded as extremists by the government and other religious organizations. Of course this is all leading to one thing. The Bible stated around 2000 years ago that one day a man would require all people on earth to receive a "mark" in their right hand or forehead, and that without such a mark they would not be able to buy or sell (Revelation 13:16-18). How long will it take before the world governments decide that cards are too costly to produce, too easily replicated, too easily broken and lost. Perhaps not long. This link from my friend Chris reveals that the US government is already seeking to implant its soldiers with a biometric chip that will monitor their vital signs.

Quote: "A new Defense Department-funded study is aimed at developing a microchip the size of a grain of rice that would be implanted in soldiers wounded on the battlefield, but the idea raises privacy concerns for at least one major veterans group.

With companies like Xmark spearheading this technology, little remains to be done before the prophecy concerning the Mark of the Beast can be fulfilled. Of course I believe that the real Mark will be implemented by the False Prophet, and will be taken as a pledge of allegiance to the Antichrist and his system. But in the meantime, we can expect more news like this, conditioning people's minds into accepting the idea of a single, global, identification system. They will tell us it is for our safety, but in reality in will hand complete control of the world's population to one man, and ultimately Satan himself.

Revelation 15:2-4
And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

Source New York Times, Fox News