Beijing’s Goal: Establish Surveillance of Everyone

the perception of surveillance can keep the public in line.

Some places are further along than others. Invasive mass- surveillance software has been set up to track the Uighur Muslim minority, according to software viewed by The New York Times.

“This is potentially a totally new way for the government to manage the economy and society,” said Martin Chorzempa, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“The goal is algorithmic governance,” he added.

A major intersection in Xiangyang used to be a nightmare. Cars drove fast and jaywalkers darted into the street.

Then last summer, the police put up cameras linked to facial recognition technology and a big, outdoor screen. Photos of lawbreakers were displayed alongside their names and government I.D. numbers.

“If you are captured by the system and you don’t see it, your neighbors or colleagues will, and they will gossip about it,” said Guan Yue, a spokeswoman. “That’s too embarrassing for people to take.”

China’s new surveillance is based on an old idea: Only strong authority can bring order to a turbulent country. Mao Zedong took that philosophy to devastating ends, as his topdown rule brought famine and then the Cultural Revolution.

His successors formed a new understanding with the Chinese people. In exchange for political impotence, they would be left alone and allowed to get rich.

It worked. Censorship and police powers remained strong, but China’s people still found more freedom. That new attitude helped usher in decades of breakneck economic growth.

But today, China’s economy isn’t growing at the same pace. It suffers from a severe wealth gap. And after four decades of fatter paychecks and better living, its people have higher expectations.

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, has moved to solidify his power, turning to Mao- era beliefs in the importance of a cult of personality and the role of the Communist Party in everyday life. Technology gives him the power to make it happen.

Zhang Lifan, a Chinese historian, said: “The current system has created severe social and economic segregation. So now the rulers use the taxpayers’ money to monitor the taxpayers.”

Mr. Xi has launched a major upgrade of the Chinese surveillance state. Analysts estimated that the country will have almost 300 million cameras installed by 2020.

Government contracts are fueling research and development into technologies that track faces, clothing and even a person’s gait. Experimental gadgets, like facial- recognition glasses, have begun to appear.

Still, erratic enforcement of laws means the long arm of Beijing’s reach can feel remote from everyday life. As a result, many cheer on new attempts at law and order.

A technology boom in China is helping the government’s surveillance ambitions. In May, the upstart A.I. company SenseTime raised $620 million, giving it a valuation of about $4.5 billion. Megvii raised $460 million from investors that included a fund created by China’s top leadership.

China’s public security market was valued at more than $80 billion last year, said Shen Xinyang, a former Google data scientist who is now with Eyecool, a start-up.

At a conference in May, Mr. Shen said his company had surveillance systems at more than 20 airports and train stations, which had helped catch 1,000 criminals. Eyecool, he said, is handing over two million facial images each day to a big- data police system called Skynet.

For technology to be effective, it doesn’t always have to work. Take China’s facial-recognition glasses.

Police in the city of Zhengzhou recently showed off the glasses at a high-speed rail station. The state media snapped photos of a policewoman peering from behind shaded lenses.

But the glasses work only if the target stands still for several seconds. They have been used mostly to check travelers for fake identifications.

China’s database of individuals that it has flagged for watching — including suspected terrorists, criminals, drug traffickers, political activists and others — includes 20 million to 30 million people, said one technology executive. That is too many people for today’s facial recognition technology to parse, said the executive, who asked not to be identified.

The system remains more of a digital patchwork than an all-seeing technological network. Many files still aren’t digitized, and others are on mismatched spreadsheets that can’t be easily reconciled.

But in many places, the technology works. At the crosswalk in Xiangyang, jaywalking has decreased after cameras were installed. At a building complex where a facial-recognition gate system was installed, bike theft ended, according to building management.

“The whole point is that people don’t know if they’re being monitored, and that uncertainty makes people more obedient,” said Mr. Chorzempa, the Peterson Institute fellow.

In Zhengzhou, the police explained how just the thought of the facial recognition glasses could get criminals to confess.

Mr. Shan, the Zhengzhou police officer, said that while questioning the suspect, officers pulled out the glasses and told the man that what he said didn’t matter. The glasses could give them all the information they needed.

“Because he was afraid of being found out by the advanced technology, he confessed,” Mr. Shan said.

“We didn’t even use any interrogation techniques,” he said. “He simply gave it all up.”

Law and order by way of fear, shame and big data collection.