In mainland China, facial recognition-enhanced surveillance cameras and other equipment are ubiquitous in cities and towns. The technology is installed inside stores, cafeterias, and banks for making payments or to access office buildings and airports.
Internal Chinese government documents have revealed more details about authorities’ plans to monitor citizens on a large scale—including dissidents.
The Epoch Times obtained documents issued by the “work leadership group for public security video monitoring construction and networking” in Liuhe district, Nanjing city, Jiangsu Province.
In 2017, the government of Nanjing city implemented facial recognition technology to initiate three “defenses,” meaning high-resolution surveillance cameras would be installed near province- and city-level highways; district-level roads; and core governmental zones, transportation hubs, hospitals, squares, and communities.
Pedestrians should be videotaped every 10, 20, and 30 minutes, according to the document.
In its implementation plan, the claim of “public security technology and protection management” is actually meant to slate out a nation-wide monitoring system for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The initiative was first conceived in 2008 in a Chinese Communist Party document on plans to “revive the countryside.”
As with the 20 million “Skynet” cameras that are already in place throughout China’s urban areas, the “Sharp Eyes Project” is pegged as a public safety measure to help fight crime more effectively.
