Yue’s Yappings

China’s rapid industrialization has resulted in tens of millions of migrant workers leaving the countryside to try and find work in the booming eastern cities. Not surprisingly, this has made it very difficult for the government to keep track of people.

Shenzhen, which borders Guangzhou and Hong Kong, is one of the primary magnets for migrant workers. It has grown from a small fishing village twenty years ago to a huge 12 million person metropolis. With growth of migrant workers has come crime - Shenzhen has the highest crime rate among the major cities in China.

As the New York Times reported last month, Shenzhen is building the world’s largest people tracking system to combat the problem. It comprises over 20,000 digital cameras, installed on every street, and uses sophisticated software to try and identify criminals or any illegal activities in realtime.

In addition, starting this month, the Shenzhen government is issuing citizens a new, RFID-based identification card. Each card stores a person’s name, address, work history, education background, religion, criminal history, medical history and their landlord’s telephone number. And since China still enforces its “one child” policy, the card also stores the number of children the person has.

And the Shenzen government has yet bigger hopes. It wants to turn the card into a debit/credit card - so people can use it to buy subway/bus/train tickets. Of course, then it becomes trivial to see where you are at and what you are doing.

Before you dismiss this Orwellian nightmare as limited to China, don’t forget that:

• England has the highest number of surveillance cameras per person in the world
• Both England and the United States are trying to introduce national identity cards similar to the ones Shenzhen is using
• The FBI has been experimenting with facial recognition software at high profile events like the Super Bowl

Of course the proper limits for government surveillance in this age of terrorism is hotly debated. Its unclear where the bounds will be drawn in Western democracies, but in China citizens still have precious little power to push back against the government.