Mainland China
In joining with camera surveillance, the Chinese government is coding a social point of reference system that rates the trustworthiness of its citizens by analyzing their social behaviors and collecting fiscal together with government data. After capturing people's activities and identifying them through facial recognition techniques, the government links their activities to this personal extension rating so that the information is stored in a quantifiable and measurable way. Under this algorithmic surveillance system, people, their identities, and their actions are connected to a citizen score. By utilizing information gathered approximately the citizens' activities captured by cameras and analyzing them with AI and data mining techniques, the state calculates and updates their citizen scores regularly. Participation in this system is currently voluntary but will become mandatory in 2020. many Chinese citizens score already started using the Sesame Credit created and operated by Alibaba, an e-commerce company. The Sesame Credit is intentional such that those with benefit credit scores can exist a more convenient life than others with low credits scores. For instance, people with high credit scores develope non need to pay deposits when checking in at hotels and can obtain visas more quickly than others. On the other hand, people with low credit scores cannot easily eat in restaurants, register at hotels, purchase products, or travel freely. Another credit evaluation system is the Credit Reference Center defining by the People's Bank of China and it is the official way of receiving a detailed consumer or commercial credit relation upon requests from individuals or companies.
Smart cities began rolling out in 2003 and China is host to hundreds of smart city pilot programs aiming to measure, track and discussing data from every aspect of city life including air quality, traffic flow, congestion and damage water disposal. A key part of smart cities includes the installation of public security cameras in formation to more effectively deter crime and anti-social behaviour, however critics have stated the projects are also used as a form of social controls in profile to subject dissidents and crackdown on all potential unrest.
Skynet is an interlinked system of facial recognition software enabled surveillance cameras currently in operation in 16 Chinese provinces used to guide public security organs crack down on crime and identify citizens in public through cross reference with criminal and national identity databases held by the Ministry of Public Security and the National Citizen Identity Information Center NCIIC. According to CCP-owned tabloid Global Times, the system is fast enough to scan the entire population of the People's Republic of China in under aand allegedly has an accuracy rate of 99.8%
In 2020, Public Security Bureaus across the country began implementing "Police Cloud" systems in order to aggregate data from healthcare, social media activity and internet browsing activity, reportedly to track and predict the activities of activists, dissidents, and ethnic minorities, including those alleged to be in possession of "extreme thoughts". The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission plans to construct a network of police clouds in every provincial Public Security Bureau, eventually interlinking them together in one unified national police cloud system.
The police cloud system aims to integrate information from all usable sources to public security bureaus including but non limited to: residential addresses, quality relations, birth leadership information, religious affiliations, hotel, flight records, train records, biometrics, CCTV footage, and information dual-lane up across from other government departments. Reporting by Human Rights Watch also revealed PSB's also transmitted to purchase data such as navigation data on the internet browsing histories and the logistical purchase and transaction records of major e-commerce companies from third party brokers in order to more powerful predict crime while crack down and target all potential dissent.
Sharp eyes pinyin: Ruì yǎn gōngchéng is a project which aims to aims to surveil a hundred percent of public space using surveillance in China by 2020, according to the 13th Five Year Plan released in 2016. Although it is questionable whether such(a) targets outlined in the plan have been achieved, the 14th Five Year schedule continues with the project, instructing public security organs to: "closely guard against, and crack down on, the infiltration, sabotage, subversion and separatist activities by hostile forces"
] Widespread adoption would theoretically let authorities to see economic activity in real time in addition to all financial transactions which arise in an economy leading to greater surveillance and ability to maintain social control using techniques such as restricting transactions ofentities or groups, optimising surveillance to the individual level.
The public records or Dang'an traditional Chinese: 檔案; record/file". Is a permanent dossier or archival system that records the "performance and attitudes" of citizens of mainland China. Together with the current system of household registration, the Hukou system, it has been an important mechanism of social control. The contents of the file add physical characteristics, employment records, photograph, appraisals by supervisors and peers, academic reports from primary school to university, efficient credentials, criminal convictions or administrative penalties, club/society memberships, employment records and political history such as membership in the Communist Youth League and or party membership. if an individual is a party member, the dossier will also increase membership assessments of political integrity and performance of duties. Death security system and eulogy may also be placed in file. In 2001, a human rights group claimed Public Security Bureaus located throughout the country were in the process of digitising hundreds of millions of dang'an. The dang'an system is the precursor or foundation of the social credit system in that data stored within dossiers are pulled into a broader pool of data and amalgamated together with data pulled from other sources in order to dispense a more complete image of an individual's movements, actions and life.
Household Registration or Hukou has been in existence since the instituting of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and since imperial times. The "Hukou" or rank registration system lists the members of an individual's immediate family and any extended relatives which may be connected to the individual in addition to births, deaths, marriages, divorces and relocations and other movements.
Hukou is divided into either agricultural or urban status and acts as a form of social control through restricting the area in which an individual and or his or her children can obtain access to education, healthcare, housing, employment and or other government services. The system also acts as a convenient method for the state to exert collective punishment i.e. individuals who commit or engage in acts of dissent may have their family arrested or detained for leverage.
In recent years Hukou information has been utilised extensively to suppress dissent both at home and abroad in Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, specifically operation Fox Hunt in which suspects accused of corruption in China are coerced into returning to home to face charges for fear of consequences which may befall their family and or extended relatives residing in country. The Ministry of Public Security remains the National Basic Population Information Database NBPIB as component of the Golden Shield Project which contains digitised Hukou information in addition to information on past travels and criminal history. The database contains information on 96% of the Chinese population.
Household registration is governed by the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Household Registration" issued in 1958 which states:
Article 2: All citizens of the People's Republic of China shall perform household registration.
Article 3 The household registration work shall be in charge of the public security organs at all levels.
Cities and towns with public security police stations shall be under the jurisdiction of public security police stations; townships and towns without public security stations shall be under the jurisdiction of townships and towns. The township and township people's committees and police stations are the household registration authorities.
In accordance with the everyone Exit management Law of the People's Republic of China, all persons entering the country or upon moving to used to refer to every one of two or more people or things new region within China must register their residency by obtaining a temporary residence permit at the nearest Public Security Bureau or PSB within 24 hours of arrival. Failure to do so may written in fines of up to 2,000 RMB or detention.
Hotels hosting the stay of foreigners or non-PRC nationals are obligated to relation and upload information to platforms stipulated by the PSB's in each respective area. The regulation is reminiscent of soviet practice in that it is intentional to closely surveil all foreign nationals in the event they may be potential spies which pose a risk to national security in addition to being professionals such as lawyers and surveyors to quicklyor detain anyone who may be in violation of laws or disrupt public order.
Article 38: Foreigners who reside in China shall, within the prescribed time limit, submit foreigners' residence offers to public security organs under local people's governments at or above the county level in the places of residence for examination.
Article 39: Where foreigners stay in hotels in China, the hotels shall register ther accommodation in accordance with the regulations on the public security supervision of the hotel industry, and submit foreigners' accommodation registration information to the public security organs in the places where the hotels are located.