Chinese Regime Building Orwellian Nightmare

All-embracing digital surveillance allows state to squash dissent before it occurs

A woman looks at a screen projecting pictures of people crossing the roads or offending traffic rules in Shanghai, China, on August 9, 2017. Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

Facial recognition technology is becoming ubiquitous throughout China. It is used to serve meals to students at school cafeterias, pay for items at stores, as a “virtual” boarding pass for airline flights, and even to prevent toilet paper theft at the public restrooms inside a popular tourist attraction in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the country plans on expanding its “Skynet” system, a net of more than 20 million security cameras that employs facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology to gather personal information in real time, to cover the entire country by 2020. The Chinese regime claims the system is used as a crime-fighting tool.