You're being watched

In China, surveillance is both Orwellian and visible. Here, it's largely invisible.

A drone.
(Image credit: China Daily via REUTERS)

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.

The drone descended from the sky, its propellers whirring, and hovered over the head of an elderly Chinese woman. "Yes, Auntie, this drone is speaking to you," the voice of ­Authority said through a loudspeaker, as she looked up in concern. "You shouldn't walk around without wearing a mask. You'd better go back home." A video of this Orwellian encounter was put online by China's state media, evidently to boast of its use of drones and other technology to combat the spread of the new coronavirus. In another video, a drone zooms in on a group of people playing mah-jongg outdoors. "You've been spotted!" the loudspeaker admonishes. "Leave the site as soon as possible." To control the population, the government is also using facial recognition technology, robots, and the data it routinely gathers about who travels where and when. Those showing symptoms of illness are being hauled off to mass-quarantine facilities. It's chilling. It's dystopian. Americans would never put up with it. Would we?

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William Falk

William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.