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'The Entire System Is Designed to Suppress Us.'
What the Chinese Surveillance State Means for the Rest of the World
“Nobody wanted to risk being recorded on security cameras talking to me in case they ended up in the camps themselves” https://time.com/5735411/china-surve...rivacy-issues/
I think this is coming for everyone. Freedom is an illusion, even today when we go out into the public domain a large part of the time we are on some type of scrutiny by the authorities.
The main issue with China's surveillance state versus that of the US, UK etc is the simultaneous implementation of a social credit system and broad, vague laws against sowing social discord. "Wrongthink" when vocalized is actually a punishable offense in China which can get you in serious trouble.
If City Data was a Chinese page and outside spoke of Xi Jinping and the Politburo the easy period speak of Trump and the Senate, 2/3rds of the P&OC section would have been apprehended and jailed, to say nothing of FB and Twitter. Countless celebrities celebs would have been jailed and academia would be effectively shut down.
Imagine if sharing an "Epstein Didn't Kill Himself" meme got you a knock on the door from the FBI, saying in a post that Trump is the worst leader in US history, using lame insults Pelosi "Nazi Pelosi" or "Barack Obummer" could get you in prison, liking the wrong post can lower your credit score, and losing a civil case could prevent you from boarding a plane.
After the cultural revolution, where vast numbers of people were indeed purged for imagined slights or speaking up, mainland Chinese society has evolved in a way that people self-censor comments that could be perceived as "stirring the pot" and will do the same to family members. That started to loosen somewhat over the last decade and now Xi, who is much more authoritarian in leadership style than his recent predecessors, is using technology to ensure that this social element stays a solid part of Chinese society.
They do that at various levels here as well. They've long scanned social media and set up traps to get people to break laws so they can be imprisoned on terrorism charges.
The main difference here is that people are pitted against each other in a divide-and-rule two-party system so the focus is diverted from the government or the private interests that have disproportionate power.
The US and its allies can also collect the surveillance data outside its borders. That will be curtailed in the long run as foreign governments will opt out of US networking gear and keep data stored locally.
They do that at various levels here as well. They've long scanned social media and set up traps to get people to break laws so they can be imprisoned on terrorism charges.
The main difference here is that people are pitted against each other in a divide-and-rule two-party system so the focus is diverted from the government or the private interests that have disproportionate power.
The US and its allies can also collect the surveillance data outside its borders. That will be curtailed in the long run as foreign governments will opt out of US networking gear and keep data stored locally.
yet the same foreign governments want to use chinese gear and get put in concentration camps
Imagine if sharing an "Epstein Didn't Kill Himself" meme got you a knock on the door from the FBI, saying in a post that Trump is the worst leader in US history, using lame insults Pelosi "Nazi Pelosi" or "Barack Obummer" could get you in prison, liking the wrong post can lower your credit score, and losing a civil case could prevent you from boarding a plane.
After the cultural revolution, where vast numbers of people were indeed purged for imagined slights or speaking up, mainland Chinese society has evolved in a way that people self-censor comments that could be perceived as "stirring the pot" and will do the same to family members. That started to loosen somewhat over the last decade and now Xi, who is much more authoritarian in leadership style than his recent predecessors, is using technology to ensure that this social element stays a solid part of Chinese society.
China has always been an authoritarian state without free speech, and America is normally considered one of the freest countries in the world. In addition, China and the US is not in the same position. How many americans that is not ethnically Chinese consume Chinese media, almost none. But how many Chinese that is not ethnically American would consume American media if they were allowed to. The answer is tens of millions, and it would destabilise China. It is not a fair competition.
China is just China. I do not see it extremly worrying that China is staying similar to how it has been for decades. The internet freedom in the 2000s was an exception and could not last. Xi Jinping is unlikely to get a good reputation, and hopefully things go back on track when the next President come. What I find more worrying is that the west and the rest of the world is becoming less free and is learning from China. The main tool from the Chinese government is not to imprison people, but to delete and derank content they do not like and keep a log of everything, so they always has something to use against you. That is the exact same thing we are seeing from american tech companies.
The thing is, most people in China either support the social credit system or do not care.
On the one hand, its impact is not as big as many outsiders imagine. So far it is only related to purchasing train tickets, for the most part.
On the other hand, China has many other systems that monitor details of citizens (not to say the US does not have one). Adding a new one does not seem to be big news.
In the name of fighting terrorism, members of predominantly Muslim ethnic groups—mostly Uighurs but also Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz—are forced to surrender biometric data like photos, fingerprints, DNA, blood and voice samples. Police are armed with a smartphone app that then automatically flags certain behaviors, according to reverse engineering by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Those who grow a beard, leave their house via a back door or visit the mosque often are red-flagged by the system and interrogated.
China is doing much the same as Russia, US, and other governments to avoid blowback from the militants who went to fight as mercenaries in Afghanistan and Syria. The US has tended to let fewer of them back in as these fighters were foreign nationals. The obvious result of inadequate control was what's occurred in Europe since Russia entered the war and the flow of mercenaries was reversed.
This is a recent article on the return of Islamist militants to Central Asia.
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