Opinion | In China, Big Brother is watching you even as you sort your trash

The Chinese state is taking surveillance to the next level. Vast networks of cameras are not just aimed at reducing crime but also enforcing recycling laws, encouraging civic behaviour. Privacy concerns aside, the tools are reshaping the relationship between government and citizen

Reading Time:4 minutes

Published: 11:00am, 5 Aug 2019Updated: 12:06pm, 7 Aug 2019

In Jiuting town in Shanghai in June, the urban management squadron was on a case in which a van load of insulation foam was secretly dumped at a construction waste disposal site at night. Because of omnipresent video cameras, it didn’t take long for officials to track down the van and fine the offender 20,000 yuan (US$2,900). Although the hefty fine and the determined enforcement of recycling laws shocked many netizens, they were part and parcel of a new waste-sorting regimen in Shanghai that has been dubbed “the most stringent in history”.

The implementation of the new policy also illustrates how hi-tech surveillance has emboldened the Chinese state to spearhead more ambitious initiatives, targeting not only economic matters but also the most mundane activities in the lives of ordinary people.

Peaceful City is a security management platform that connects cameras across cities and controls all aspects of public security, including policing, emergency management, traffic management and access control. Connected to this platform is a mass surveillance system called Skynet, a network of video cameras exchanging real-time information with government databases.

There were 200 million of these cameras in 2018, and with 400 million more to be installed by 2020, China will soon have almost one camera for every two citizens. Beijing’s aim, writes Stephen Chen in the Post, is to “identify anyone, anytime, anywhere in China within three seconds”.

Thanks to more demand from the state and to the country’s transition to the age of big data and artificial intelligence, the Chinese video surveillance industry is growing fast. This market grew 14.7 per cent in 2017, accounting for 44 per cent of global revenue.