China uses technological innovations like facial recognition software to gain more control of its citizens, a Jan. 5, 2021, NPR article reported.
German journalist Kai Strittmatter told NPR it does not matter if the technology and software works the way the Chinese government claims it does, as long as the people believe in the efficacy of the technology.
"What the Communist party is doing with all this high-tech surveillance technology now is they're trying to internalize control," Strittmatter said. "Once you believe it's true, it's like you don't even need the policemen at the corner anymore, because you're becoming your own policeman."
Since 1949, when the Communist party came to power, it has experimented with social control measures, Foreign Policy reported in an April 2018 article.
“The Communist party doesn't see those new technologies as a danger to their rule,” Strittmatter said to NPR. “On the contrary, they have discovered or they think that actually these new technologies give them new instruments that will perfect their rule, and it will make their rule crisis-proof, and now that's the same thing with artificial intelligence and big data.”
For example, the social credit system was started in 2013. This system adds or subtracts points to each citizen, and even companies and government organizations, based on an individual’s "trustworthiness" to society and the economy, Foreign Policy reported.
“A social credit system is an important component part of the Socialist market economy system and the social governance system," and it aims to reinforce the idea that "keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful,” China Copyright and Media reported in 2014.
China's grid management system divides local governments’ jurisdictions into segments, with a designated person monitoring each segment. Agents monitor and collect information on a specific number of households, according to an April 2018 article in The Asia Dialogue. This grid monitoring system is said to "enhance the government’s ability to collect information and manage social conflict and stability."
Government officials and police make frequent visits to peoples' homes to gather information as reported in a February 2018 Human Rights Watch article. The frequency of visits reportedly depends on the household’s "trustworthiness." Officials may visit daily or once every two months. It was reported residents must provide information about their family, their “ideological situation” and relationships with neighbors.
