China is always used as the primary example of a surveillance state, people constantly talk about how dystopian it is and how everything you do in public or online is tracked. I have always been skeptical about these claims and know how hypocritical they are because of the amount of surveillance that happens in the west but I want to know if China is really that bad in regards to privacy.
It’s dishonest in the extreme. Everything China does has been done by the west (usually Britain or the US) first. CCTV cameras everywhere? London had very high coverage long before China had them anywhere but critical areas. Cell tracking tech? Guarantee the US has it deployed first and more widespread.
But that doesn’t fit the narrative of China being exceptionally bad. China is usually a step behind the west.
I’m more interested in knowing whether there’s truth to it or if it’s mainly projection
Yes it’s true China has a lot of surveillance. That’s like saying China has cops or criminals. Well the west also has cops and surveillance. If your interlocutor is trying to use the existence of such a thing in China as evidence it’s bad and they don’t also at least think the west is equally bad then they’re a hypocrite. It ceases to be a point of any real relevance because it’s not a distinction, there’s no daylight between China and the west on this, if one wants to take the anarchist path and claim all states are this way and thus we must abolish the state that’s honest at least and somewhat consistent, what isn’t honest is using a trait common among western states not frequently associated with propaganda and a propagandized image of human rights violations, surveillance and using it to bash China as uniquely evil.