P O L I T I C S
28
Editedby
Rebecca Penty○ Paranoiasetsin asChina’s
governmentrampsupblanket
rackingnotdesignedfor
anoutbreakFor decades, China has been building and refining
the ability to track its citizens’ whereabouts and
interactions to control dissent and protest. The
state’s efforts to contain the rapid spread of the
new coronavirus are now testing the limits of that
surveillance system.
To slow down any virus, it’s important to inter-
rupt person-to-person transmission. Officials
in China have used a mix of high- and low-tech
to find and monitor people who may have been
exposed to the virus, which had infected more
than 78,000 and killed upwards of 2,700 in thecountry as of Feb. 25. Authorities have sourced
data from phone carriers and called on private
tech companies to set up virtual health hotlines
to trace everyone who’s been in or near Hubei
province, home to Wuhan, the epicenter of the
outbreak. They’ve also activated an extensive
network of Communist Party members and com-
munity groups, encouraging citizens to monitor
neighbors’ vital signs and whereabouts.
A 25-year-old who studies in Wuhan told
Bloomberg News he was surprised when officials
found him about 300 miles north in his hometown
of Henan. The postgraduate student, who asked
not to be named because he feared police retal-
iation, left Wuhan in early January. Two weeks
later a Henan police officer called, saying he sus-
pected the student had visited the seafood market
where the virus was thought to have originated and
asked if the student was feeling all right. Soon, theSurveillance State
Vs. the Virus
Pedestrians in
protective masks
walk past surveillance
cameras in Shanghai○
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