6 ★ FTWeekend 2 November/3 November 2019
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
S U E- L I N WO N G A N D Q I A N E R L I U
SHENZHENAfter facial recognition, prepare for
emotion recognition. This was the
crime prevention buzz-phrase on
everyone’s lips this week at China’s
largest surveillance tech expo, held in
the southern tech hub of Shenzhen.The technology, which is being rolled
out at airports and subway stations to
identify criminal suspects, is the latest
development incrime prediction sys-
tems n the world’s largest surveillancei
market, which already relies on facial
and gait recognition, eye tracking and
crowdanalysis.
Emotion recognition systems have
beeninstalledinXinjiang,aregioninfar
western China where an estimated 1m
mostly Muslim minorities are held in
internment camps. In October, the US
blocked ight Chinese artificial intelli-e
gence tech companies from buying
US-made products on the grounds
of alleged human rights abuses in
Xinjiang.
“Using video footage, emotion recog-
nition technology can rapidly identify
criminal suspects by analysing their
mental state... to prevent illegal acts
including terrorism and smuggling,”
said Li Xiaoyu, a policing expert and
party cadre from the public security
bureau in Altay city in Xinjiang. “We’ve
alreadystartedusingit.”
The technology is mostly deployed at
customs, he added, and identifies signs
of aggressiveness and nervousness as
well as stress levels and a person’s
potentialtoattackothers.
Companies around the world, includ-
ing Amazon, Microsoft and Google, are
all developing emotion recognition, but
scientists say the technology does not
work very well. “This technology is still
a bit of a gimmick and is unlikely to be
rolled out on a large scale in the next
three to five years,” said Ge Jia, aninfluential Beijing-based technology
blogger.
“Only a few schools and public secu-
rity bureaus have products that include
this type of technology,” said Zhen Wen-
zhuang at Baidu’s booth at the expo,
adding it had not been fully developed
for commercial use. A representative
from facial recognition company Meg-
vii, who declined to be named, saidthe
technology was being widely developed
and used within government, particu-
larlypublicsecuritybureaus.
“We work with all kinds of comp-
anies in Xinjiang including Hikvision,
Uniview, Dahua and Tiandy. Only com-
panies that are strong in AI can really
succeed in this field and of course the
two biggest companies in this field are
Alibaba and Tencent,” said Mr Li, add-
ing the Xinjiang government also
workedwiththem.
Morethan1,500companiesdisplayed
their wares at an expo attended by Chi-
nese government officials, police offic-
ers, businesses, individuals and over-
seasvisitors.
Huawei, one of China’s leading AI
companies, had a visible presence as it
usesitscompetitiveadvantageinAIand
5G to muscle in on the public security
industry. “Huawei has attended the
expo for a long time but they’ve really
started developing this aspect of their
business over the past two years,” said
Michael Yang, secretary-general of the
expo’sorganisingcommittee.Security technology
Emotion recognition joins list
of Chinese surveillance tools
A N D R E W E N G L A N D, S I M E O N K E R R
A N D A H M E D A L O M R A N— RIYADHSaudi Arabia is reining in government
spending for the first time in three years
in a bold calculation that Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman’s economic
reformsarepayingoff.
At the same time, businesses have
been hit by government measures that
have raised their costs and battered
investor confidence as Prince Moham-
med has tried to overhaul the Middle
East’sbiggesteconomy.
But Mohammed al-Jadaan, the finan-
ce minister, insisted that “sentiment
was turning positive” ashis pre-budget
statement said government expendi-
ture for 2020 would be reduced to
SR1.02tn ($267bn) from an estimated
SR1.05tn this year. It would fall progres-
sivelytoSR955bnin2022,headded.
“In 2020, we still start reaping the
benefits of the policies, whether it’s fis-
cal or economic policies, that we have
implemented over the past few years,”
Mr Jadaan said. “I’m very confident that
the adjustment to spending will not
haveanimpactoneconomicgrowth.”
Government spending, funded by
petrodollars, traditionally triggers
growth in the world’s top oil exporter.
The IMF this month revised down its
forecast for gross domestic product
growth for the year from 1.9 per cent to
0.2 per cent, mainly because of cuts to
thekingdom’scrudeoutput.
“There still remain risks for these fis-
cal targets: the weakness in the oil mar-
ket, as well as the time required to com-
plete [government] megaprojects and
for those to support growth or non-oil
revenue,” said Monica Malik, chief eco-
nomistatAbuDhabiCommercialBank.
SomeSaudi businessmenare cau-
tiously talking about an upturn in dom-
estic activity with non-oil growth rising
to2.9percentyearonyearinthesecond
quarter, its highest level in four years.
Any recovery, however, remains fragile,
bankerswarned.
“We’refinallybackat2014,whichwas
a good year for domestic sales,” said an
executive at aSaudi industrial supplier.
“But that has been after many years of
lostgrowthandtherecoveryisweak.”Others are less convinced, saying the
private sector has yet to experience the
benefits of the past three expansionary
budgets.
“Business owners are chafing under
what seems to be a lack of government
spendingandontopofthat[thegovern-
ment is not] paying bills... it’s better,
but it’s still not good,” said another
Saudi executive. “We’ve not seen a pal-
pable pick-up in economic activity. Peo-
plearelookingatthehorizonandseeing
miragesofgreenshoots.”
He said companies were still suffering
from the introduction of fees levied on
employers of foreign workers, who
account for up to 90 per cent of the pri-
vate sector labour force, and moves by
the government to force the retail and
servicesfirmstoemploymoreSaudis.
The government did recently waive
expatriate worker tariffs for the manu-
facturing sector, which employs about645,000 foreigners, for five years. And
Riyadh is hoping thatsectors, such as
entertainment and tourism which have
emerged as a result of social reforms,
willbecomenewdriversofgrowth.
But business confidence has not fully
recovered from Prince Mohammed’s
2017 anti-corruption purge that led to
more than 300 tycoons and princes
beingdetained ttheRitz-Carltonhotel.a
Many had to transfer assets and cash to
thegovernmenttosecuretheirrelease.
As such, some businessmen arelook-
ing to move assets offshore, “which is
slowing down investment in the domes-
ticeconomy”,saidtheSaudiexecutive.
Foreign direct investmentslowed
after the murder of journalistJamal
Khashoggi year ago. There are alsoa
concernsaboutthekingdom’sroleinthe
war in the Yemen andtensions with
Iran, whichlast monthwas blamed for
anattackonSaudiArabia’soilindustry.
FDI rose to $3.2bn last year from
$1.4bn in 2017,based on UNdata; still
less than half what the kingdom attrac-
ted in 2016, the yearthe prince launch-
ed his Vision 2030 reform plan. But as
one banker theresaid. “There still isn’t
thegrowthtocreatethejobsneeded.”Middle East
Saudis cut state
spending in bid
to lift sentiment
Business confidence hit by
rising costs and bankers
predict fragile rebound
‘People are looking at
the horizon and seeing
mirages of green shoots’
Saudi executiveThousands of Islamic activists
yesterday demanded the resignation of
Imran Khan after descending on the
Pakistan capital to set up camp.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a firebrand
cleric and leader of the Jamiat Ulema
Islam-Fazlur Rehman party (JUI-F),
had arrived in Islamabadat the head of
a caravan ofcars, buses andthousands
of protesters.
In an interview broadcast on theprivately owned AAJ TV channel,
Mr Rehman repeated demands for
Mr Khan to resign as prime minister, to
be followed by arliamentary elections.p
Since agreeing a $6bn bailout with
the IMF in May, r Khan has beenM
under intense pressure. Food,
electricity and gas prices have risen
sharply while economic growth has
ground to a nine-year low.
Ahead ofyesterday’s protest,uniformed guardsbelonging to
Ansar ul Islam, a paramilitary group
run by the JUI-F, took charge of
security arrangements.One senior
local police officer told the Financial
Times: “Maulana Fazlur Rehman
has brought his military units along.
How can anyone not be nervous
about these people coming to
Islamabad?”
Farhan Bokhari in IslamabadIslamist anger
Khan faces
calls to resign
In focus: a man inspects surveillance
cameras at the Shenzhen tech expoReuters/Akhtar Soomro