The Chinese government revealed Thursday, June 23 its ” guidelines to strengthen the construction of a digital government “. This plan specifies the objectives of the Middle Empire for the transformation of its mode of governance using digital technology by 2035. It hopes to strengthen the economic stability of the country with better use of big data. Data that could be used to consolidate its policy of surveillance and control of citizens.
Beijing wants to set up an economic forecasting system
The first step in this major digital transformation project is to build a system that uses data more efficiently. Without going into details, the country would like to achieve this goal in 2025 and should help Beijing design a more scientific, precise and effective governance policy. In this way, the government wants to achieve better management of its economy.
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The plan explains that “ China will strengthen the integration, collection and management of economic data to develop economic governance databases and it will use big data to improve analysis of the economy and signal potential risks “. Concretely, Beijing wants to design economic prediction tools that use big data. Such methods are for example used by the OECD, but only for short-term forecasts of GDP.
A reinforcement of authoritarian politics through digital
Unfortunately, this plan also draws the contours of a reinforcement of the authoritarian policy of Beijing. As the country already makes extensive use of surveillance technologies and the social credit of citizens conditions certain aspects of their daily lives, these restrictive policies could become more important.
the South China Morning Post recalls that local leaders in the city of Zhengzhou, in Henan province, did not hesitate to hijack QR code systems during the health crisis. This device, which indicates via a green or red light whether a person can access a place depending on their state of health, has been used to restrict the movement of potential dissidents and demonstrators. A diversion made possible by the use of vast personal databases.
Under the guise of security, China claims to want to set up a system for predicting and preventing dangers using public security data. A real storyline Minority Report. Beijing also intends to improve its “Sharp Eyes” program, a mass surveillance system which aims to cover the entire public space according to the Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
This new plan for digital does not mention it directly, but facial recognition devices play a major role in government surveillance policy. A technology that already allows Beijing to know the movements of some of its citizens.
Social credit, diversion of health measures, video surveillance and facial recognition, China is implementing all technical means to guarantee the application of its authoritarian policy. Often referred to as the first digital dictatorship, the Middle Kingdom seems to be maintaining this direction for 2035.