China Briefing | China’s Covid-19 health code system is ripe for abuse and must not outlast the pandemic

Health QR codes are one of the most powerful tools in China’s antivirus arsenal, but a recent scandal in Henan province shows how open they are to misuse

Authorities should waste no time putting more safeguards in place – and offer their unequivocal assurances that the system will not become a permanent feature

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A medical worker scans a QR health code before taking a swab sample in Shanghai’s Huangpu district on June 1. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00am, 18 Jun 2022

Few things in life are truly indispensable, but in pandemic-era China the national health QR code system known as jiankang ma is an innovation that no ordinary citizen can live life without.

The ubiquitous health QR codes, which people are required to scan before taking public transport or entering public spaces, have proved to be one of the most powerful tools in China’s antivirus arsenal – allowing the authorities to effectively track and control people’s movements to help curb the spread of the virus.

Only the very young and very old are exempt because of their unfamiliarity with smartphones, which are used to run an accompanying app that displays a person’s Covid-19 status after a health code is scanned.

A primary school pupil pictured with his health QR code and travel history QR code printed out on pieces of paper in Gejiu, Yunnan province. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Since the system’s introduction in early 2020, however, there have been consistent concerns that it could be abused for political control or the violation of privacy, as the code also contains a vast trove of other data the authorities have on individuals – including their personal information, travel history, health records, location and recent contacts.

That helps explain the national uproar that began on Monday when reports emerged of local authorities in Henan province tampering with the system to bar certain residents from visiting Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. Some of the people had wanted to voice their complaints and demand justice after losing their deposits in a major banking scandal, while others were unhappy about the delayed delivery of residential units.

On top of concerns about blatant privacy violations, the Henan saga is likely to arouse further suspicions that the health QR code could become a permanent feature of China’s already pervasive and oppressive system of surveillance, even after Covid-19 fades away.

Green means go

The health code app was pioneered in the tech hub of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, where it enabled authorities to quickly isolate people diagnosed with Covid-19 during the early days of the pandemic, allowing others to get on with their lives.