Big Comrade Is Watching You

In communist China, we are seeing the formation of George Orwell's dystopian vision 1984 take form. 

Orwell's Vision Fulfilled

It would have happened earlier in Stalin's communist Soviet Union, or in Hitlers Nazi Germany .... but the technology didn't support it.

But now, developments in Artificial intelligence (AI) and HD cameras make the hopes of every, one party authoritarian state, not just a wishful daydream, but a practical reality, now, today!

By 2040 in China, it should be possible to track a person outside of their home, 24 hours a day in all China's major cities, and even in many minor urban population centres ... probably only the rural villages and hamlets will not be under the  all seeing eyes and ears of 'Big Comrade' 24 hours a day.

This because advances in A.I. facial recognition software algorithms, some using as many as 68 face anchor points, along with the advances in quantum computing, allow for almost instant search matching (which some current standard computing systems can do in seconds, anyway). So the deployment of HD camera systems on streets, roads traffic systems, public and many commercial buildings (banks, department stores etc), all compulsorily linked to the state security systems (by law in China, every company has to 'assist' the state security organisations), and the lack of any independent checks and balances on the states powers, all mean that China is uniquely set up amongst modern authoritarian states to achieve the total control of the population.  

In a chilling development, Huawei and the China Academy of Sciences filed a patent in July 2018 that describes a face recognition product that is capable of identifying people on the basis of their ethnicity.  

The reason this vision of the 1984 future came to me, was that I actually had a dream that encountered such a situation in China. It was a ridiculous dream situation (as they usually are), but in it, my team couldn't escape the surveillance systems, as the Chinese state forces tried to kill (or at best capture) us. In frustration at our impending dream capture, I woke up and then researched and wrote this post.

Now I know some alt-right conspiracists in the USA (and UK), and some left wing loonies in the UK, believe that we already operate a similar deep-state system in the West ... but actually we don't. For a start we don't have anything like the number of street cameras (outside of large population city centres), to operate like that, but also most building security cameras, ATM cameras, and private commercial security systems are independently operated.  

If you have watched the reality TV show 'Murder on CCTV', you will have seen how in USA, the police only have real time access to a few police cameras in town centres and traffic cameras. For all other cctv evidence they have to walk around looking for private security cameras on public or commercial buildings, petrol stations, ATMs, and peoples homes (including doorbell cams!), and then ask if they can look at them. They sometimes even need a court order to access them ... in other words, we have some official coverage, but its not integrated, and often of very low quality, and most importantly not designed for the surveillance of the population, but primarily for people and private companies to protect their property and goods.

What makes China (and to some degree Russia) different is that they have specifically set out to have an integrated system of cameras, and the ability to monitor it in real time or remotely, using AI facial recognition software to be able to identify people (both its own citizens, and anyone who has passed through its border control systems), almost anywhere the system network covers. China is estimated to be home to half of the world's almost 800 plus million surveillance cameras.

In theory, the Chinese public can oppose the collection of biometric data such as finger prints, and high-resolution scans of faces ... in fact the Hangzhou Safari Park had to compensate for and destroy this type of data after a Chinese appeals court ruled against it being collected by private companies (but not the state) without consent. 

However that ignores the fact that for Chinese national identification papers, and security clearances, and even passports, this type of data is required legally and once in the database (along with 2d scans from visitors passports and older ID papers) can be used by the security services in a 'One Person, One File system' (For each person the government would store their personal information, their political activities, relationships... anything that might give you insight into how that person would behave and what kind of a threat they might pose) ....  the new facial recognition software, can convert these to allow multi-point recognition in real time or from security footage.

The justification for such a national system in China, is often described as 'crime prevention' (including  even in public bathrooms to 'prevent toilet paper theft'), however as China has a wide ranging range of crimes, that's a loose justification. Also, the cameras don't seem to deter crimes, including street crimes such as muggings, murders, rapes etc still occur, then one has to assume that:

• Either it doesn't work (so is not a crime deterrence),
• Or the system is not being used to prevent crime at all.

Now would I suggest that second possibility? Well, if every public and street crime is either stopped, or solved via the Chinese national surveillance system, then although many of the population would be happy and feel more secure .... from a national security point of view, it would mean that no one would be unaware of the part surveillance played in this law an order, and act accordingly.

So many criminals would wear baseball caps and dark glasses outside, and in public spaces to obscure faces from overhead cameras .... but more importantly, the people the system is really designed to work against, protestors, conspirators, terrorists, and watched groups etc, would stop performing any illegal activity outside of their own secure buildings, and follow the same camera obscuring techniques as common criminals and others .... meaning that they would suddenly be hard to track again.

So for the system to work as really intended, you actually need people to not fear the security cameras, to act normally, walk the streets with open faces, and thus their movements to be easy to track, either from recordings or in real time .... with facial recognition software controlling cameras and highlighting people of interest.

In May 2021 investigative journalist Hu Liu told the BBC of his own experience: "Once you leave home and step into the lift, you are captured by a camera. There are cameras everywhere. When I leave home to go somewhere, I call a taxi, the taxi company uploads the data to the government. I may then go to a cafe to meet a few friends and the authorities know my location through the camera in the cafe."

"There have been occasions when I have met some friends, and soon after someone from the government contacts me. They warned me, 'Don't see that person, don't do this and that.' With artificial intelligence we have nowhere to hide."

So in China, street crime will continue, but Big Comrade will always be aware of everything that happens on his streets and public buildings.