Economic power has made China a major global player. Impressive growth, grandiose plans, but also ancient history and mysterious originality make it difficult to read what China actually is today and how to behave towards it. Norwegian political scientist Stein Ringen clearly sees it as a dictatorship that has achieved perfection in the digital age. He examines China through an analysis of the functioning of the state, the reproduction of power and the status of the individual in such a system. He rids it of myths and provides a glimpse behind the scenes of the operation of power over people. He shows the increasingly sophisticated surveillance of people, the automation of control and elaborate censorship mechanisms as methods whose main goal is to reproduce the power of the ruling party.
This episode was originally released on February 26, 2020.
Citizen monitoring
The Chinese government has been testing the social credit system in several cities for several years. This year, it plans to introduce it nationwide and use it to control the direction of Chinese society. The system uses artificial intelligence to monitor citizens and evaluate their social and economic behavior. Based on this, they are then granted or taken away certain benefits. How the system works in practice is described in a report by the news program Vice News Tonight.
China and national minorities
In this episode of The Daily news podcast, New York Times reporters share their experience in detention camps where an estimated one million members of the Uyghur Muslim minority are being held.
