Wednesday, August 15, 2018

China's Surveillance State Continues To Spread

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Reuters: From laboratory in far west, China's surveillance state spreads quietly

BEIJING (Reuters) - Filip Liu, a 31-year-old software developer from Beijing, was traveling in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang when he was pulled to one side by police as he got off a bus.

The officers took Liu’s iPhone, hooked it up to a handheld device that looked like a laptop and told him they were “checking his phone for illegal information”.

Liu’s experience in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, is not uncommon in a region that has been wracked by separatist violence and a crackdown by security forces.

But such surveillance technologies, tested out in the laboratory of Xinjiang, are now quietly spreading across China.

Government procurement documents collected by Reuters and rare insights from officials show the technology Liu encountered in Xinjiang is encroaching into cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Police stations in almost every province have sought to buy the data-extraction devices for smartphones since the beginning of 2016, coinciding with a sharp rise in spending on internal security and a crackdown on dissent, the data show.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I know among the Chinese friends they are not happy with this lost of privacy. But for the moment, most Chinese citizens are accepting these surveillance measures.

7 comments:

jac said...

Chinese's are trapped. Sorry for them, but only an external effect can help them.

Anonymous said...

Correction, Jac. You're only trapped in China if you don't have the means to leave. Many of the millionaires and sone if the billionaires will try to leave. On top, academics will try to get out. Called brain -drain. Why China is too stupid to see the consequences is beyond me. This system in itself causes so much damage to China that the race between the US and China is over. No one in his right mind ever uttered the words "I want to live in China ". This will only guarantee the acceleration of brain drain and money drain. Also: we should hold OUR companies responsible to not deal with such an inhumane government. Lets use the SJWs for something good. (But they rather complain about trump than 1.5bn people being oppressed and utilised as a massive force to bring down free societies. They'll demonstrate plastic straws instead)

Anonymous said...

My assumption is that China not only wants to do surveillance, but use its inhumane scoring system to control and direct its people. Everyone is in that system - there is no "opt out". You are in it from birth onwards. And if you want a job and education, you better obey. China has become such a nightmarish society, I really feel for them.. and there is no easy way out. This is Xi's doing. All but enslaving of 1.5bn people.

Anonymous said...

For sure China is all that is stated here. However, increasingly our cities, states, and federal govt spying on us with hidden cameras, reading emails, etc by NSA...we dismiss this and focus instead on other nations. Everywhere you go, your cell phone is sending your location to someplace and is stored there.

Anonymous said...

While I agree that there is spying everywhere, and we have our own problems, you have not really read up on the subject matter, I suspect. Please do read up. It's not the same, not even close.

Mike Feldhake said...

The Chinese have been leaving for years. Moving to Thailand, Australia, the US and Canada.

Anonymous said...

Anon--
I do not say that we are Like China in our intel, ie spying, but merely pointing out that we too do this. There is no reason to tell me to read up as a way of suggesting that I do not know what you know. In fact I not only have done reading on the subject I am also in touch with people living in that nation