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China Privacy

Chinese Province Targets Journalists, Foreign Students With Planned New Surveillance System (reuters.com) 46

Security officials in one of China's largest provinces have commissioned a surveillance system they say they want to use to track journalists and international students among other "suspicious people," Reuters reported Monday, citing internal documents. From the report: A July 29 tender document published on the Henan provincial government's procurement website -- reported in the media for the first time -- details plans for a system that can compile individual files on such persons of interest coming to Henan using 3,000 facial recognition cameras that connect to various national and regional databases. A 5 million yuan ($782,000) contract was awarded on Sept. 17 to Chinese tech company Neusoft (600718.SS), which was required to finish building the system within two months of signing the contract, separate documents published on the Henan government procurement website showed. Reuters was unable to establish if the system is currently operating.

China is trying to build what some security experts describe as one of the world's most sophisticated surveillance technology networks, with millions of cameras in public places and increasing use of techniques such as smartphone monitoring and facial recognition. U.S.-based surveillance research firm IPVM, which has closely tracked the network's expansion and first identified the Henan document, said the tender was unique in specifying journalists as surveillance targets and providing a blueprint for public security authorities to quickly locate them and obstruct their work.

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Chinese Province Targets Journalists, Foreign Students With Planned New Surveillance System

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  • So explain to me (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why would I want to study abroad in China?
    • To experience something completely different first hand. To get a nuanced view of a different culture, including the things that happen under the hood, bad and good. And to eat chopped frog.
    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @01:33PM (#62030577) Homepage Journal

      Because you're interested in the culture. Because you're adventurous. Because China is an important country and having direct experience of it may give you useful insights for later in your career.

      The problem is the CCP doesn't want *you* there. Not any more. The pendulum has swung back to more of a "Great Leap Forward" mentality. They want to be self-sufficient; that's been the object all along, and the end game is here. Now that China is an economic superpower, the party feels like that's within their grasp, so it doesn't feel it needs to tolerate foreigners and brook foreign influence.

      The mark of an advanced country is trade. A modern power is more dependent upon its *rivals* than a 19th century power was dependent upon its *allies*. This may account for the fact that we live in the what is arguably the most peaceful era in human history. It makes no sense to subjugate people when you can get what you want by trading. You certainly don't want to destroy anyone's economy because they're your *customers*.

      Colonial empires are obsolete. Their absurdity was laid bare by the near self-destruction of Japan during WW2, in an attempt to *steal* resources like rubber and oil that people would gladly have *sold* to them. But the CCP is stuck in a 19th Century mentality where to be a great power is to be internally self-sufficient.

    • the NCAA should pull out or let players drop games with no loss of scholarship

  • https://www.indiatimes.com/tre... [indiatimes.com]

    1. Delhi, India
    1826.58 cameras per square mile
    2. London, United Kingdom
    1,138.48 cameras per square mile
    3. Chennai, India
    609.92 cameras per square mile
    4. Shenzhen, China
    520.08 cameras per square mile
    5. Wuxi, China
    472.66 cameras per square mile
    6. Qingdao, China
    415.80 cameras per square mile
    7. Shanghai, China
    408.49 cameras per square mile
    8. Singapore, Singapore
    387.56 cameras per square mile
    9. Changsha, China
    353.85 cameras per square mile
    10. Wuhan, China
    339.01 cameras per square

    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @01:46PM (#62030639) Homepage Journal

      It's probably worth noting that many of the Chinese cities on this list are vast prefectural cities. Qingdao, for example, covers an area of 4273 square miles. That's 8x the size of Los Angeles.

      This isn't just providing security for city centers. China has a population of 1.4 billion with 200 million public cameras; that's one camera for every seven people and they're all operated by state security. They have ambitions of moving them into workplaces and rural areas, and they want them to become 2-way, so authorities can speak to anyone, anywhere. The idea is that they will be able to tell people what to do, or to stay put while a policeman comes to get them. They don't have the manpower or technology to make this work, yet, but they're working on it.

      • Cameras are good if there was a way to securely restrict their use to only serious violent crimes upon obtaining a publicly disclosed warrant. Any petty or non-violent crimes revealed on camera should be granted full immunity by law. Maybe have the data encrypted, deleted within 30 days, with the decryption key split among a term-limited rotating group of citizens with serious consequences for any attempt at circumvention.

      • -*- citations please -*-
        • by hey! ( 33014 )

          City sizes can be found in Wikipedia, as can the population of China and an estimate of surveillance cameras [wikipedia.org].

          China's attempt to make these two way has been widely reported [latimes.com]. They don't make any secret of this, because they see nothing wrong with it. I don't have the link handy, but I've seen Chinese state propaganda which depicts staged encounters in which the camera operator does things like scold people for not separating their trash or staying to late at work. That's obviously fantasy because of the sh

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    fiction?

    maybe

  • by Beerismydad ( 1677434 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @03:37PM (#62030999)
    Kudos to the China shills who have jumped on the comment section here so quickly and attempted to derail the conversation from the topic of the article: (Remember? It's "Chinese Province Targets Journalists, Foreign Students With Planned New Surveillance System") Xi continues to make the mistake of clamping down on his citizens' (and guests') individual liberties. The Chinese are not the North Koreans. They will eventually tire of Xi's self-centered policies (which are designed to preserve his own neck). China shills: I'd be questioning my Dear Leader's policies and motives, if I were you.
    • by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @04:36PM (#62031243)
      "They will eventually tire of Xi's self-centered policies" - over a billion people living under Xi's thumb. When they finally get tired of this there's going to be hell to pay in the hundred acre wood! I truly hope the Chinese people overthrow the CCP horror they live under. Imagine a world with a free China.
      • Before the Chinese changed. And he instigated the Great Famine, millions starved to death (we cannot really imagine what that would be like).

        Sure, China has changed, had western influence. But the Confucian beliefs of hard work, family, and respect for authority run deep.

        I think Xi is emperor for life and China will obediently follow him to wherever he leads them. Just pray it is not to a very bad place.

      • I truly hope the Chinese people overthrow the CCP horror they live under. Imagine a world with a free China.

        The West can hardly compete with China now. Even though China has one hand tied behind its back due to being a 1 party state.
        People don't want a free China to compete against fairly. They want a Chinese civil war that will remove China from the competition for a very long time. Maybe even permanently.

    • Why would the Chinese people question Xi or get tired? The middle class is getting comfortable, they can have every gizmo they want, they can dream of becoming super-rich. China's industry dictates what we can buy and at what price; China research is going to lead the space race; China has dramatic influence on UN agencies. It's the best time China has had in a millenia, and it's the CCP that brought them there. They don't care about elections, they have money and power (or Bread and Games). Of course China

  • by zeeky boogy doog ( 8381659 ) on Monday November 29, 2021 @03:50PM (#62031071)
    AI technology has only two possible outcomes: It will create paradise on earth, or it will create the most horrifying authoritarian panopticon hell imaginable.

    China is determined to reach the latter it seems.
  • Apple and Google are 2 of the biggest lobbyists against slave labor legislation.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/1... [nytimes.com]

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