Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province, was the first Chinese city to introduce a “health code” system. Originally, the health codes were green, yellow, and red zones; but since the end of January, orange was added to indicate that the code holder resides in a pandemic prevention zone. In addition, use of the health code is being controlled ever more stringently and has become a tool for monitoring people and cracking down on or restricting the movements of dissidents.
Hangzhou’s health code system is based on Zhejiang’s Government Cloud, a health code engine developed in three days by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. On Feb. 17, 2020, Zhejiang became the first Chinese province to have “full health code coverage.”
