"A truly groundbreaking investigation . . . The global scope and deep detail of [Chin and Lin's] account retires the notion of an 'all-seeing' surveillance as some future scenario; it is happening already. They will open your eyes to the astonishing intersection of data, politics, and the human body. Anyone who cares about the future of technology, of China, or of free will cannot afford to miss this."
—Evan Osnos, The New Yorker
“Josh Chin and Liza Lin show how some of Silicon Valley's most celebrated advances, along with some of its most exalted companies, have enabled a vast experiment in Chinese social engineering that is terrifying and seductive in equal measure. Surveillance technologies, both inside China and around the world, are creating an alternative to the liberal order far more swiftly than most people believe. This book gives us a vital glimpse into what might replace it.”
—Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy
"Surveillance State could not be more timely, both as a gripping, suspense-filled tale of what is actually happening to Uyghurs in China and as a description of digital dictatorship that makes abstractions like predictive analytics, facial and voice recognition technology, and integrated information systems terrifyingly concrete. People and governments in open societies need to see what is at stake in the decisions we make about how to balance liberty and security in the digital age; this book brings those choices home."
—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America
“Surveillance State tackles a critical global issue—how rapidly growing surveillance of all kinds is implicated in struggles for democracy and against authoritarianism…the authors offer a careful and thoughtful, ambitious and journalistic analysis of how excessive and illiberal surveillance is expanding, and must be confronted everywhere. Engaging everyday stories of real people bring this urgent issue freshly to light.”
—David Lyon, author of Pandemic Surveillance
“There hardly is any Uyghur person in the Region who has not been subjected to the oppressive and systematic tactics of this high-tech war that the CCP has waged against its own citizens. Josh Chin and Liza Lin’s book reminds us how easily a state actor can quietly and stealthily take control of its people. As Uyghurs, we know this well. But to the rest of the world, Surveillance State should serve as a wake-up call.”
—Jewher Ilham, author of Because I Have To
“This book is written for the future. It reveals beyond dispute the murky and distorted world we are about to face. Dictatorship and Big Data are closely intertwined. They surveil, control, and remold every individual—all this constitutes a vast, inescapable prison that leaves nowhere to hide, a sort of demonic laboratory…Left unchecked, it will push the rest of the world sliding into an abyss."
—Murong Xuecun, author of Deadly Quiet City
“Surveillance State is a cautionary book. It is fairhanded in detailing the rapacious speed at which China has constructed a model of digital authoritarianism other countries are no doubt eager to learn from. Its value is in showing how such surveillance systems are only as good (or bad) as the people who build them.”
—NPR
“[A] rigorous and alarming study of how the Chinese Communist Party uses surveillance technology to monitor residents and quell dissent.…This wide-ranging and deeply informed study offers crucial insights into the rising threat of digital surveillance.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A study of the Chinese government’s sweeping surveillance program.…The underside of digital technology on full, frightening display.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Essential reading for those interested in modern China."
—Library Journal
"[A] deeply researched account of how the Chinese government has been using technology to shape its citizens according to its policies since the Cultural Revolution...This is both a granular and a big-picture look at how today’s Chinese Communist Party has flipped the Cold War debate over civil liberties and state control on its head."
—New York Times
“[E]ssential reading not only because of what it tells us about China — and Chin and Lin have gathered spine-chilling material at great personal risk — but also because of what it tells us about the rest of the world.”
—Bloomberg
“Building on years of reporting across the country, Chin and Lin explore the CCP’s attempts to harness Big Data and near ubiquitous surveillance networks to scrutinize, track, and even pre-empt the demands of Chinese citizens.”
—The New Statesman
“Josh Chin and Liza Lin's hard-hitting new book, ‘Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control,’ superbly narrates what living under China's omnipresent surveillance apparatus means on a human level.”
—The Courier-Journal
"In Surveillance State, Wall Street Journal reporters Josh Chin and Liza Lin reveal just how far Xi and the Communist Party have gone in deploying surveillance technology to rein in the population."
—Washington Post
“Surveillance State is an engrossing account of how, and why, the technology has become so pervasive.”
—The Economist
07/04/2022
Wall Street Journal reporters Chin and Lin debut with a rigorous and alarming study of how the Chinese Communist Party uses surveillance technology to monitor residents and quell dissent. They trace the roots of this mass surveillance to Mao Zedong’s Ministry of Public Security, which employed 300,000 people to monitor their fellow citizens. After Mao’s death in 1976, the Communist Party deprioritized social control in order to focus on improving the economy, eventually achieving double-digit annual growth. But as the economy slowed in recent years, draconian mass surveillance returned. In Xinjiang province, home to the country’s Uyghur Muslims, every house has a QR code that the police regularly scan to make sure that all residents are registered with the authorities. Uyghurs, an estimated one million of whom have been sent to reeducation camps, are also subject to regular fingerprinting and the taking of blood samples and voice recordings. The authors also visit Hangzhou, home to the tech giant Alibaba, where the police act more like “glorified security guards” and artificial intelligence is used to optimize living conditions. Throughout, Chin and Lin expose the role of U.S. tech companies in developing China’s surveillance tools and draw vivid profiles of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Uyghur rights activists, and others. This wide-ranging and deeply informed study offers crucial insights into the rising threat of digital surveillance. (Sept.)
07/01/2022
For years, China's Communist Party has invested in new technologies to surveil and control its population. Chin and Lin (both of the Wall Street Journal) interviewed over 150 people in 14 countries to explore the history of this development, along with how it has manifested in different regions of the country. The story begins in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China with a large Muslim Uyghur population, where authorities have pioneered the use of extreme data collection and surveillance tactics. There, large numbers of people have been detained in "re-education" camps. Not all of these technologies are employed for sinister motives, as the party also benefits from improving the lives of citizens. For example, ambulance drivers in Hangzhou have the ability to change the pattern of traffic lights to speed up their response time. The authors also discuss how China has exported these technologies to bolster authoritarian regimes abroad. VERDICT Essential reading for those interested in modern China. Readers curious about the various ways that President Xi has expanded his power should also consider Kai Strittmatter's We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State.—Joshua Wallace
2022-05-14
A study of the Chinese government’s sweeping surveillance program.
Chin and Lin, veteran reporters on China for the Wall Street Journal and other outlets, have spent enough time in the country to effectively trace the development of an extraordinary surveillance system, a defining feature of the Xi Jinping era. It began in Xinjiang province, supposedly to keep track of Uyghur dissidents, but the Communist Party leaders quickly saw the broader potential. Featuring a nationwide network of cameras feeding into a massive database, the program connects with online shopping giants such as Alibaba and Tencent, and it also extends to internet usage and mobile phones. Using this data, Chinese authorities established an algorithm-based “social credit system,” under which “responsible” people could be rewarded while others could be monitored and, if necessary, punished. “By solving social problems before they occur and quashing dissent before it spills out into the streets,” write the authors, [the Party] believes it can strangle opposition in the crib.” Another crucial piece is facial recognition software, and the government is reportedly working on “emotion recognition” software, aiming to pick up individuals who have not done anything wrong but might think about it in the future. “China’s leaders,” write the authors, “wanted to redefine government using the same tools that Google, Facebook and Amazon had used to remake capitalism….They could engineer away dissent. China would have optimization.” Party officials understand that most citizens will trade privacy for order. Worryingly, the system is now being exported around the world, with aspects of it appearing in India, Uganda, and Singapore. Occasionally, the authors wander away from their main theme, but they paint a grim, disturbing portrait that deserves close scrutiny, especially as the technology becomes more precise and easier to deploy. While tech giants in the U.S. “exploit this technology for profit…the Communist Party has adopted it as a means to maintain power.”
The underside of digital technology on full, frightening display.
