China’s hi-tech police state in fractious Xinjiang a boon for security firms
Surveillance spending in the far western region – one of the most policed places on earth – ballooned ‘nearly 100 per cent’ last year to US$8.8 billion
China’s construction of a vast, all-seeing police state in its fractious far west has triggered a government spending spree worth billions to firms providing a hi-tech network of cameras and “re-education centres”.
The surveillance machine in Xinjiang has grown exponentially in recent years, used by the ruling Communist Party to guard against what it considers Islamic extremism and separatism in the region.
Cameras point at imams leading prayers inside mosques, diners eating in restaurants and customers haggling with shopkeepers, in what activists have described as a human rights and privacy disaster.
Facial recognition, iris scanners, DNA collection and artificial intelligence are also being used by Xinjiang’s government to ensure there are “no cracks, no blind spots, no gaps” for the region’s more than 20 million residents to slip through.
Already one of the most policed places on earth, Xinjiang saw security spending balloon “nearly 100 per cent” last year, totalling more than 58 billion yuan (US$8.8 billion) – twice its spending on health care – according to Adrian Zenz, a China security expert at Germany’s European School of Culture and Theology.
“In 2017 alone, the region spent nearly as much on domestic security as in the six years of 2007 to 2012 combined,” he said.