Chinese citizens enjoy public safety in exchange for compromised privacy. In the United States, people are facing an increasingly unchecked state.

Out of story ideas about China? One default topic for Western hacks is to warn against the repressive nature of China’s pervasive “hi-tech” public surveillance. But a recent one in The New York Times takes the cake.

Forgive the long quote, but it helps to fill up column space. It’s also necessary to show the person’s pathos or value system. I don’t know. But here goes:

“I heard some surprising refrains on my recent travels through China. ‘Leave your bags here,’ a Chinese acquaintance or tour guide would suggest when I ducked off the streets into a public bathroom. ‘Don’t worry,’ they’d say and shrug when I temporarily lost sight of my young son in the crowds.

“The explanation always followed: ‘Nobody will do anything,’ they’d say knowingly. Or: ‘There’s no crime.’ And then, always: ‘There are so many cameras!’ I couldn’t imagine such blasé faith in public safety back when I last lived in China, in 2013, but on this visit it was true: Cameras gawked from poles, flashed as we drove through intersections, lingered on faces as we passed through stations or shops.”

The writer, an American, is troubled. “I felt that I’d gotten a taste of our own American future,” she wrote. “Wasn’t this, after all, the logical endpoint of an evolution already under way in America?”

Oh dear! In fact, high-resolution public security cameras with facial recognition features are so yesterday’s tech.

The Times article is titled, “Can we see our future in China’s cameras?” Well, no, lady, you want to see your future, go back to your own country.

In the United States and Israel, terrifying new data analytics technologies are being deployed by spying, military, and law enforcement agencies – and they are all deeply tangled up with America’s leading tech and AI firms. In fact, their government businesses are contributing to the current AI investment bubble.

Since Donald Trump won back the White House, security, surveillance and data analytics specialist Palantir has reportedly secured contracts worth more than US$113 million to build detailed profiles of Americans.

According to an investigation by The Intercept, the initial goal is to track immigrants’ movements in real time, monitor their social media, map where they live, work, and travel. The collated data will generate instant reports on visa holders that include what they look like and people they associate with.

But, targeting immigrants is just the start. “Palantir specialises in mining personal data from thousands of sources – your social media, financial records, travel patterns, associations – and converting it all into searchable databases that map connections between individuals and organisations,” The Intercept reported.

“US spy agencies plan to create a master surveillance database that would make it even easier for them to surveil anyone they choose. This massive database would be a one-stop shop for authorities that want to track, intimidate, and retaliate against Americans – all built with our tax dollars.”

This is, I mean, “precrime”, Philip K. Dick territory! And don’t forget America jails more of its own citizens than any other nation; the prison may be considered the ultimate state-run surveillance facility.

I know Americans consider the ability to cause death – carry a gun – a constitutional right fundamental to their notion of liberty. We Chinese consider personal safety – living safely, staying alive – as being fundamental to freedom or for that matter, anything we find worthwhile or valuable. If CCTVs help with that, so be it.

It’s a cultural thing, I guess, different values for different people.

The murder rate in the US is more than four times that of China, robberies, six times, and violent crimes, 18 times. China has more than four times the US population.

At least in China, citizens get public safety and security in exchange for compromising their privacy. In the US, you don’t even get that. You get robbed, beaten and shot, and you still stand naked before an increasingly unchecked state – right down to the DNA levels.

Republished from South China Morning Post, 20 July 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.