China - Surveillance state or way of the future? | DW Documentary

China is building a huge digital surveillance system. The state collects massive amounts of data from willing citizens: the benefits are practical, and people who play by the rules are rewarded. Critics call it “the most ambitious Orwellian project in human history.“ China’s digital surveillance system involves massive amounts of data being gathered by the state. In the so-called “brain“ of Shanghai, for example, authorities have an eye on everything. On huge screens, they can switch to any of the approximately one million cameras, to find out who’s falling asleep behind the wheel, or littering, or not following Coronavirus regulations. “We want people to feel good here, to feel that the city is very safe,“ says Sheng Dandan, who helped design the “brain.“ Surveys suggest that most Chinese citizens are inclined to see benefits as opposed to risks: if algorithms can identify every citizen by their face, speech and even the way they walk, those breaking the law or behaving badly will have no chance. It’s incre