Coronavirus: How the outbreak is testing China’s vaunted surveillance technology
- Masks could be preventing China’s massive surveillance system from reading faces fully, according to AI scientists
- Suspects who avoided home quarantine were at large for weeks, going to shopping malls, dining in restaurants and playing mahjong in entertainment centres
The family slipped through all measures of screening and, according to information later posted by some fellow villagers on the internet, exchanged greetings at the banquet with guests at 100 tables.
Seven people were later confirmed infected, more than 4,000 villagers quarantined and five cadres sacked for negligence, according to local media reports.
In recent years, aided by some of the world’s largest information technology companies and the rapid development of cutting-edge technology such as big data analysis and artificial intelligence, the Chinese government has built up one of the most advanced mass surveillance networks on Earth to monitor the daily activities of the country’s 1.4 billion citizens.
The network includes nationwide video surveillance systems such as Skynet, which uses more cameras than any other country.