The EconomistNovember 9th 2019 China 272 with strong support from their Chinese
Students and Scholars Associations and a
thumbs-up from Chinese diplomats. In
Hong Kong, mainland student groups keep
a low profile, probably to avoid accusations
by Hong Kongers that they are undermin-
ing the “high degree of autonomy” that
China has promised the territory. Unlike
Chinese students in the West, some of
whom have demonstrated against Hong
Kong’s protest movement and torn down
bulletin-board messages in support of it,
mainland students in Hong Kong have usu-
ally been more restrained. Some avoid
speaking Mandarin in public places, fear-
ing a hostile response.
The mainlanders rub shoulders with a
local student body that is far more staunch-
ly anti-Communist than domestic stu-
dents tend to be on Western campuses. On
October 1st, China’s national day, Mr Huang
was among a few dozen mainland students
who gathered to sing the Chinese anthem
on the campus of the University of Hong
Kong. The group was quickly surrounded
by local students. Tensions escalated as the
Hongkongers began yelling, in Cantonese,
“Vindicate June 4th!” They were referring
to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989
which were bloodily crushed on that date.
Local students often regard their main-
land counterparts as upholders of the
Communist Party line. One of those who
confronted Mr Huang and his group says
locals sometimes ask mainlanders why
they study in Hong Kong if they do not em-
brace freedom and democracy. “None of
them ever answers,” he says dismissively,
asking not to be named because of his in-
volvement in the recent protests.
It is true that few mainland students
show much interest in the pro-democracy
cause. Many regard politics as a sideshow
to the much more pressing need of landing
a good job on the mainland. But Hong
Kong’s liberal culture does rub off on some
of them. Julie Li (not her real name), who
this year gained a master’s degree from the
Chinese University of Hong Kong, de-
scribes her own political transformation
since she arrived in the territory in 2018. By
reading Hong Kong’s media, the 23-year-
old discovered that a high-school class-
mate who had been arrested on the main-
land for supporting a campaign for work-
ers’ rights had not, as the mainland’s media
claimed, “conspired against the country”.
Ms Li began paying closer attention to oth-
er human-rights abuses on the mainland
and enjoying political debate with local
classmates. Eventually she all but ceased to
use WeChat, put off by its heavy censorship
of news relating to Hong Kong’s unrest.
Now, however, Ms Li finds the violence
and vandalism unbearable. She wants to
leave and is looking for jobs across the bor-
der. “I think the protests have degenerated
into something sinister now,” she says. 7
G
uo bing, a legal academic in the east-
ern city of Hangzhou, likes to spend his
leisure time at a local safari park. But when
the park informed season-pass holders like
him that admission would require a face-
scan, Mr Guo objected. Late last month he
filed a lawsuit, claiming the new rules vio-
lated his privacy. Facial-recognition tech-
nology is widely used in China. Doubtless
to the relief of the government which
makes extensive use of it, there has been
little public debate about it. State media,
however, seized on Mr Guo’s case, trumpet-
ing it as the first of its kind to be lodged in a
Chinese court. Netizens have been hailing
Mr Guo as a champion of consumer rights.
A thread about his suit has garnered 100m
views on Weibo, a social-media platform.
It is surprising that it has taken so long
for the judiciary to get involved. Some 300
tourist sites in China use facial recognition
to admit visitors. The safari park says doing
so can shorten queues. Many office work-
ers in Beijing’s main financial district clock
in and out of work by scanning their faces.
Some campuses and residential buildings
use facial-recognition cameras to screen
people entering. WeChat, a messaging and
digital-wallet app, allows users to pay with
their faces at camera-equipped vendors.
Facial-recognition systems are ubiquitous
at traffic intersections, in railway stations
and airports (visitors to a public-security
expo are pictured being scanned).
But even the government recognisesthat the proliferation of this technology
may lead to abuses. It does not want discus-
sion of its own intrusions into privacy,
such as the use of facial recognition to spy
on millions of Uighurs, a mostly Muslim
group, in the western region of Xinjiang.
But poor protection of facial and other per-
sonal data by Chinese firms could impede
the country’s rise as a global tech giant. On
November 4th the websites of Xinhua, a
state news agency, and People’s Daily, a
Communist Party mouthpiece, repub-
lished an article in a Hangzhou newspaper
describing the lawsuit as a “very good op-
portunity” to spur “public debate”. People’s
Daily has started an online opinion poll
about the “ever-increasing” number of
venues using facial recognition. It is due to
publish the results on November 11th.
In China’s social media, many of the
thousands of commentators on Mr Guo’s
case have expressed fears about the sale of
personal information to third-party mar-
keters. “In China there is no protection of
privacy!” said one comment on Weibo that
was “liked” more than 1,500 times. China’s
consumer-rights law requires consent
from consumers before personal informa-
tion can be collected and stored. If the
court in Hangzhou sides with Mr Guo, oth-
er Chinese firms will need to pay heed.
By encouraging such discussion, the
government may be betting that any ire
will not be redirected at the state’s use of
the technology. But a few commentators
have hinted at their disquiet about more
than just the lax attitudes of businesses to-
wards privacy. “There’s a feeling that every-
thing you say and do is being monitored.
It’s terrifying,” said one. Another simply
wrote: “1984”. Mr Guo, however, has said he
is happy to submit to facial scans by the
government that are in the public interest.
All he wants is his money back on his sea-
son ticket. 7BEIJING
A rare debate has erupted over the use
of facial-recognition technologyData privacyThe first face-off
There’s always someone looking at you