COVID-19 tech will expand surveillance state in China
Emerald expert briefings · 2020
Subject COVID-19 and the surveillance state. Significance COVID-19 has prompted the government and private technology companies to focus resources on rapid development of new technologies. The country has rapidly developed and rolled out checkpoints, apps and programmes in response to the outbreak. Many will cease to be useful after the pandemic ends, but some will likely be retained, enhanced and turned to other purposes. Impacts Firms and the state can work well together at different levels and rapid speeds to develop technology in response to urgent needs. Chinese capabilities in areas such as facial recognition will be permanently enhanced. New types of monitoring may be used to assess citizens’ performance or entitlements in fields such as policing and ‘social management’.