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12 Days In Xinjiang - China's Surveillance State (business-standard.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the state-of-the-art-surveillance-states dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader b0s0z0ku writes: China has turned Xinjiang, the Northwestern part of the country surrounding Urumqi, into one of the most advanced surveillance states in the world. Officially, the purpose is to prevent terrorism and control resistance to the government in one of the few parts of China where ethnic Chinese are a minority.

From routine use of facial recognition cameras, to police checkpoints where people's cell phones randomly are checked for unauthorized software, to needing to swipe an ID card and be photographed to buy gasoline and other necessities, the level of technology — and control — is frightening and awe-inspiring.

12 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. The future of multiculturalism by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Low trust, high tech society => surveillance society.

    This is the future you choose.

    1. Re:The future of multiculturalism by sound+vision · · Score: 3, Insightful

      91% of China is ethnic Han Chinese and it's all being surveilled and firewalled pretty heavily. The worst surveillance state I can think of is North Korea, which is even more ethnically pure.

      I thought it would have been obvious that what breeds a surveillance state is the *state* who runs it, not the ethnicity of the people. But these days, I guess attacking Communism isn't enough - the core values of our nation must be assaulted as well.

  2. Terrorism by ebonum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The greatest thing to happen to those in power. The perfect blank check to get the public to agree to slavery.

  3. We in the West... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    think we are immune to this, but's it's being rolled out in the form of collusion between corporations and government. Almost every adult in the West carries a mobile phone--a veritable electronic leash. We "allow" ourselves to be tracked constantly, manipulated by ads, all in the name of "free" services and conveniences. How long before the aforementioned collusion turns ugly? How long before we have a National ID card in the US? There are already random stops along certain highways in the US. Whatever happened to free, unmolested travel? How long before we hear "Papers, please."

    Google and other tech companies are literally sucking the privacy out of the air. Wait... that's already happened. How long before ordering a pizza really is a matter of convincing the pizza company you really want pepperoni and sausage, but because they are "jacked in" to the system, they advise you your cholesterol is too high and add a surcharge and then report you to your insurance company.

    The only way to win is to not play the game.

    My own employer has started the nonsense of requiring annual physicals and nicotine tests. Failure to comply results in two monthly penalties of $50 for each. I refused and will happily pay the penalty. My employer has no right to know about my cholesterol levels, my blood sugar, etc. The draconian system is coming, but we're the frogs in a slowly heating pot of water. Most of us are too stupid to realize it's coming.

    1. Re:We in the West... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My employer does the same thing. I also refused and pay the penalty. I told them that I am considering it a pay cut and it will be taken into consideration as such when evaluating my current position against other opportunities.

    2. Re: We in the West... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "A man cannot even own a gun for protection in most countries....we are more free than any nation in history."

      Your definition of freedom amounting to owning a gun...suggest bigger problems.

    3. Re: We in the West... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, you are free to take lives of other people in America. Unlike here in Europe, where we allow that priviledge only to trained people we call police (don't have capital punishment), who know when killing someone is considered lesser evil. Also, having access a weapon/gun during an argument increases the chance that someone dies. I'm surr there is no connection with mass shootings in schools, ghettos...

    4. Re: We in the West... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Guns are no freedom at all, they are a burden, a weight, and a chain.

      Owning a gun only means you have chosen to carry the onus of taking a life, and gives you nothing more, and certainly does not serve to protect you from the forces of oppression as well as you might purport. A symbol of freedom? No, it's the tool often used to take away your freedoms.

  4. Re:Awe-inspiring? by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is it worse that the USA's mysterious "no-fly" lists or the TSA groping everybody who wants to travel somewhere in the USA?

    --
    No sig today...
  5. standard response by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Insightful

    China has turned Xinjiang, the Northwestern part of the country surrounding Urumqi, into one of the most advanced surveillance states in the world.

    Cue obligatory Slashdotters with standard response...

    "Yeah, well the USA is twenty-five times worse!!"

    ...in 3, 2, 1...

  6. Hundreds vs billions, maybe? by raymorris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > How is it worse that the USA's mysterious "no-fly" lists

    There are two lists called "no-fly" lists. One is an actual list of people not allowed to fly on US airlines. It includes a couple hundred people who have been actively involved in plotting hijackings and that sort of thing.

    The other list, thousands of people (out of 300 million) are people whom the FBI wants to talk to before they leave the country, or enter the country. It applies to international flights.

    There are a bunch of listed people the FBI wants to talk to if they try to come into the US. How is that different from everyone having to show ID and be tracked by the government every time they buy gas, you ask.

    There are, of course, legitimate concerns about these lists. The FBI should probably be more transparent about them. By pretending it's the same thing as the government tracking everything all citizens do, one sounds quite silly and tends to encourage readers to see criticism of the FBI lists as silly in general. It's like comparing red-light cameras to Nazi concentration camps - the comparison is so ridiculous that it undermines the argument against red-light cameras.

  7. Re:Opportunities by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why is being an "uncivilized dirt farmer" a bad thing, as opposed to being an urbanite living in a 20 square meter box, subject to constant surveillance?