Last updated by The POOG on October 15, 2020.
State surveillance and control of its people is more advanced in China than any other country. As such, it may be viewed by other actors as the proving ground for technology and tactics that they may want to use in the future.
Paul Joseph Watson gives us a good overview of the state of some of this technology as of this writing in September 2020 (8:32 minute video):
Below is the playbook that includes these technologies as well as the rest of the tactics used by the CCP today.
The Tactics
- Video surveillance is in widespread use.
- Face recognition systems. Citizens are identified by software from video surveillance images.
- Social credit scores. A citizen’s behaviour is codified into a score based on behavioural parameters set by the state[1][4].
- Control of access to services. Based on one’s social credit score, access to commercial activities including food purchases and bank accounts can be controlled and denied[1].
- Use of artificial intelligence (AI). The volume of data from surveillance systems is too vast to process by humans but can be processed easily and swiftly by AI programs.
- Control of media. All regular mainstream and social media are monitored and controlled by the state.
- Internment of minorities such as the Uighurs[3].
- The use of slave labour[2].
References
- Paul Joseph Watson. Chinese Government Combines ‘Track and Trace’ Corona System With Social Credit Score. Summit News, 10 September, 2020.
- David Lawder. U.S. to block cotton, tomato imports from China’s Xinjiang over Uighur forced labour. Global News, September 9, 2020.
- Prasun Sonwalkar. UK parliament to probe China’s Uighur detention camps in Xinjiang. Hindustan Times, September 16, 2020.
- China’s Corporate Social Credit System: How businesses can prepare. Trade Commissioner Service, Government of Canada, as of October 15, 2020.