How the Chinese surveillance state is suffocating its citizen - The Statesman
www.thestatesman.com
Over the past decade and a half, the Chinese techno-authoritarian state has deeply entrenched itself in the day-to-day lives of citizens through the use of highly sophisticated surveillance technology.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2895644

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2895443

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Over the past decade and a half, the Chinese techno-authoritarian state has deeply entrenched itself in the day-to-day lives of citizens through the use of highly sophisticated surveillance technology. Two of the world’s largest manufacturers of video surveillance equipment, Hikvision and Dahua, have revolutionized the industry and exported their products to hundreds of countries worldwide.

Chinese citizens are required to use their ID when engaging in various activities, from signing up for WeChat, the ubiquitous messaging app, to using super-apps like Alipay or WeChat Pay for tasks such as public transport, online shopping, and booking movie tickets.

This extensive network allows the government to track citizens’ everyday activities and create detailed profiles, effectively establishing a Panopticon state of censorship and repression.

The most prominent feature of China’s surveillance state is its extensive network of facial recognition cameras, which are nearly ubiquitous. The Chinese government launched a programme known as Skynet in 2005, which mandated the installation of millions of cameras throughout the nation.

This initiative was further expanded in 2015 with the introduction of SharpEyes, aiming for complete video coverage of ‘key public areas’ by 2020.

The government, in collaboration with camera manufacturers such as Hikvision and Dahua, framed this as a progressive step towards developing ‘smart cities’ that would enhance disaster response, traffic management, and crime detection.

However, the technology has been predominantly employed for repressive purposes, reinforcing compliance with the Communist Party of China.

[…]

Although many of the ‘threats’ identified by this system may turn out to be false alarms, the omnipresent vigilance of the state ensures that even the slightest dissent from citizens is swiftly suppressed.

[…]

China has become the first known instance of a government employing artificial intelligence for racial profiling, a practice referred to as ‘automated racism’, with its extensive facial recognition technologies specifically identifying and monitoring minority groups, particularly Uyghur Muslims, who have been subjected to numerous human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

[This inlcudes] mass detentions, forced labour, religious oppression, political indoctrination, forced sterilisation and abortion, as well as sexual assault.

In Xinjiang, an extreme form of mass surveillance has transformed the province into a battleground, with military-grade cyber systems imposed on the civilian population, while the significant investment in policing and suppressing Uyghur Muslims has established Xinjiang as a testing ground for highly intrusive surveillance technologies that may be adopted by other authoritarian regimes, and the Chinese government has been known to collect DNA samples from Uyghur Muslims residing in Xinjiang, a move that has drawn widespread international condemnation for its unethical application of science and technology.

[…]

The Chinese government has adeptly formulated legislation that unites citizens and the state against private enterprises. Laws such as the Personal Information Protection Law and the Data Security Law, both enacted in 2021, impose stringent penalties on companies that fail to secure user consent for data collection, effectively diverting scrutiny away from the state’s own transgressions.

[…]

    • 0x815@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      112·
      3 months ago

      Thanks for this.

      Maybe you know Total Trust, a documentary.

      Total Trust is an eye-opening and deeply disturbing story of surveillance technology, abuse of power and (self-)censorship that confronts us with what can happen when our privacy is ignored. Through the haunting stories of people in China who have been monitored, intimidated and even tortured, the film tells of the dangers of technology in the hands of unbridled power. Taking China as a mirror, Total Trust sounds an alarm about the increasing use of surveillance tools around the world – even by democratic governments like those in Europe. If this is the present, what is our future?

      If you speak German, you can watch it on Arte TV, but it is only available 3 more days.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      99·
      3 months ago

      That is certainly not wrong. However, I believe that it’s not just the Chinese but that the US government (and other states around the world) has very far-reaching access to its citizens’ data as well. Among other things, the Patriot Act makes it very easy to demand user data from companies without appropriate checks and balances, if the NSA is not already aware anyway. Without somewhat decent legal regulations such as those that exist in the EU for example, citizens have to trust that the state will not abuse this largely unregulated power. With regard to the question of who will form the next US government, I see a significant problem in this context: I think that Trump’s right wing GOP will use this power against their political opponents and also, as a precaution, against ordinary citizens. I don’t think they would shy away from setting up a surveillance state based on the Chinese model - the conditions for this are certainly met in the current legal situation.

    • 0x815@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      174·
      3 months ago

      I guess they can’t say much in this case. Maybe a bit whataboutism (chat control? Google does the same?), but you can’t defend this imo.

      • InvertedParallax@lemm.eeEnglish
        143·
        3 months ago

        You’re delusional, they’ll defend it by saying ‘the Chinese Communist Party has lifted blah blah blah people out of poverty!!!’ notwithstanding it’s the major reason they were in poverty, Taiwan had become one of the richest and freest countries decades earlier, and they didn’t murder 50m+ of their own citizens for lulz.

        So long as the CCP isn’t murdering them at that exact moment, they’re 100% on board because their whole life is built around everything the west doing must be evil (closer to 40/60 imho, but that beats the 80/20 of the ccp).

          • InvertedParallax@lemm.eeEnglish
            41·
            3 months ago

            It’s their worst case scenario: An educated, wealthy population with good relations to everywhere that didn’t exterminate 50m of their own citizens through their stupidity.

          • InvertedParallax@lemm.eeEnglish
            51·
            3 months ago

            They’re working on HK.

            Xi thought he had HK under control and could move directly on to Taiwan. His navy explained to him they were decades away from actually trying to invade.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      103·
      3 months ago

      1984 is already a reality - in every country of the word, especially the US. Apple’s famous Superbowl commercial from the same year, which suggested that data privacy (…) was important with regard to their strongest competitor at the time (IBM), does nothing to change this. On the contrary - none of this was even halfway true even back then. I really don’t get why people think this is just an issue in China. It is an issue all over the world. For years and years.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        33·
        3 months ago

        Sure, but there’s a pretty big difference in scope. In the US, I have Constitutional protections concerning use of that data, as well as a lot of legal options to limit it (VPN, anonymous accounts, etc). In China, those don’t exist, and instead surveillance is part of everyday life. You’ll think about it whenever you visit a new site, just to double check that it won’t be considered problematic by the state. That just doesn’t exist in the US.

        That said, things aren’t good in the US and we should expect better. But it is workable if you’re careful, and it can probably be reversed with enough public outcry.

        • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          So, basically the description of dystopia as seen in 1984 is applied differently depending on which country you live in, but it still technically exists everywhere. And that’s just depressing.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            Agreed. And I really wish we’d have a popular resurgence of privacy, but it seems we’re going the opposite direction where people prefer convenience and “safety” to control.

  • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
    185·
    3 months ago

    You might want to check out the Patriot act (especially section 215) and how that plays into your believe of your constitutional rights. If there are any questions, just ask Clarence Thomas - he knows his stuff. I really don’t get how you could be so blind to issues like that just because this post is about China. This is not a popularity contest - it is not US vs the world. This is about your rights, your data and your democracy. I’m from Europe and I’m kinda getting tired of reminding people from the US that your blind patriotism is just that…a blind spot that is used against the US citizens on every corner.

    • 0x815@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      51·
      3 months ago

      I’m from Europe and I’m kinda getting tired of reminding people from the US that your blind patriotism is just that…a blind spot that is used against the US citizens on every corner.

      For starters, I/m from Europe, but my friends from the U.S. might not need to be reminded where they live, they know that themselves. And we are all tired of this whataboutism all over the place. There is a lot of criticism on the U.S., the surveillance there, and Clarence Thomas. The thing is that in these posts, there are no whataboutisms, no one commenting, “but in China …”.

    • WanderingVentra@lemm.eeEnglish
      63·
      3 months ago

      It’s the media’s job to make us angry at foreigners while ignoring and accepting our problems at home. They’re just doing their job.

      • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
        33·
        3 months ago

        It’s not some anonymous force forcing you to act like many of your fellow citizens do on social media. It’s what the US believes, I’m affraid. Even on Lemmy. It’s all “I don’t like Trump” but strangely enough many still agree to some of his key positions when his name is not mentioned. It’s weird.

  • 0x815@feddit.orgOPEnglish
    61·
    3 months ago

    As an addition: