Murderer on the run in China turns himself in because he doesn’t have a health code
Color-based QR codes are meant to indicate the health status of smartphone users, but it makes life difficult for people without smartphones to get around... like a fugitive on the run
One tool in China’s fight against the spread of the coronavirus is a color-based QR code system that helps track people by determining where they can go. But now police have found that the system might have other unintended benefits.
So why give in now? Turns out that he doesn’t use a smartphone, meaning he doesn’t have a health code. Without being able to show the code that’s generated within a smartphone app, Shi reportedly wasn’t able to come and go from many places as he pleased and couldn’t find a place to live.
Health codes are a type of QR code mainly generated in mini programs within WeChat and Alipay, apps that nearly all smartphone users in China have. Chinese citizens are assigned green, yellow or red codes that are meant to indicate their risks of being infected with the coronavirus.
(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, whose affiliate Ant Financial operates Alipay.)
