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We Have Been Harmonized
We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State | Kai Strittmatter
15 posts | 3 read | 3 to read
A remarkable book. The more one reads, the more pressing one conclusion becomes: almost everything we thought we knew about contemporary China is wrong. The Observer, Book of the Week Hailed as a masterwork of reporting and analysis, and based on decades of research within China, We Have Been Harmonized, by award-winning correspondent Kai Strittmatter, offers a groundbreaking look at how the internet and high tech have allowed China to create the largest and most effective surveillance state in history. Chinas new drive for repression is being underpinned by unprecedented advances in technology: facial and voice recognition, GPS tracking, supercomputer databases, intercepted cell phone conversations, the monitoring of app use, and millions of high-resolution security cameras make it nearly impossible for a Chinese citizen to hide anything from authorities. Commercial transactions, including food deliveries and online purchases, are fed into vast databases, along with everything from biometric information to social media activities to methods of birth control. Cameras (so advanced that they can locate a single person within a stadium crowd of 60,000) scan for faces and walking patterns to track each individuals movement. In some schools, childrens facial expressions are monitored to make sure they are paying attention at the right times. In a new Social Credit System, each citizen is given a score for good behavior; for those who rate poorly, punishments include being banned from flying or taking high-speed trains, exclusion from certain jobs, and preventing their children from attending better schools. And it gets worse: advanced surveillance has led to the imprisonment of more than a million Chinese citizens in western China alone, many held in draconian reeducation camps. This digital totalitarianism has been made possible not only with the help of Chinese private tech companies, but the complicity of Western governments and corporations eager to gain access to Chinas huge market. And while governments debate trade wars and tariffs, the Chinese Communist Party and its local partners are aggressively stepping up their efforts to export their surveillance technology abroadincluding to the United States. We Have Been Harmonized is a terrifying portrait of life under unprecedented government surveillanceand a dire warning about what could happen anywhere under the pretense of national security. Terrifying. A warning call." The Sunday Times (UK), a Best Book of the Year so Far
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Nitpickyabouttrains
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Pickpick

Government control continues on

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keithmalek
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keithmalek

Every year, the World Values Survey conducts research to determine the proportion of citizens in individual states in favor of a strong leader 'who does not have to bother with parliament or elections.' Between 1990 and 2014, the figure nearly doubled in some countries; in 2014, it was just over twenty percent in Germany, and in Spain, it was forty percent.

BookishMarginalia 😱😱😱 3y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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Chrissyreadit I have experienced this first hand in WV 3y
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keithmalek
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Suet624 Wow! 3y
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keithmalek
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Chrissyreadit That‘s crazy! 3y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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I'm going to start saying this whenever someone pays me a compliment.

Chrissyreadit 🤣🙌 3y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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charl08
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The system then identifies this person as abnormal...

DrexEdit 😨😨😨 5y
Aimeesue 😳😳😳 5y
charl08 @drexedit @aimeesue it's an eye opening book... 5y
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charl08
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Chinese government puts out their own rap to try and reach young people.
Sample: "Let us look to the central committee for comprehensively deepening reforms"
Laughing, thinking maybe these could be translated and covered by western artists (pictured, the fabulous Missy Elliott who always strikes me as having a brilliant sense of humour)

Ddzmini She‘s so beautiful 😋🙌🏽 and her music 🎶 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 5y
charl08 @Ddzmini i and so talented... 5y
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charl08
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... it intends to use this technology to create the most perfect surveillance state the world has ever seen...