In China, surveillance crushes lives—and improves them
Josh Chin and Liza Lin explain how in “Surveillance State”
Surveillance State. By Josh Chin and Liza Lin. St Martin’s Press; 320 pages; $29.99 and £22.99
In the maoist era, the Chinese Communist Party used dossiers containing information on each person’s family background, education, political activities and job history to determine their treatment by the state. For critics of the government, these dang’an were, in the words of Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan poet, akin to “an invisible monster stalking you”.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "Perfect vision"
Culture September 24th 2022
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