Electronic surveillance

Technology has abetted China’s surveillance state

China’s new networked surveillance and control systems are designed not just for domestic use, but also for export to 63 countries. Companies including Huawei, Hikvision and ZTE are securing new sources of revenue and data, as well as strategic leverage. The ties help Beijing counter, even silence, outside criticism of its autocratic and aggressive practices, such as Hong Kong’s new national security law. Step by step, Mr Xi and the party are turning China into the world’s most ambitious, well-funded and tightly organised research laboratory dedicated to exploring how technology can serve rather than undermine autocracy. The pretension and scope of the surveillance brings to mind George Orwell’s dystopian vision. “We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it,” observed one character in Orwell’s 1984. Mr Xi is unlikely to disprove his rule.