The Surveillance State and Democracy (?) in action

[Matthew Hurwitz]

This article stood out to me for a couple of reasons. The first was that this seems to be a great example that can be used in class to show the power of control, and the ways in which a government can instill fear, obedience, and total conformity while at the same time avoiding overt signs of physical oppression. In my government classes, this could be used in one of our early units, when we look at different types of goverments, and where each type of government gets it's power from. It would be interesting to ask students to answer a question like: "To what extent is China a democracy?" based on a variety of sources, with this being one of them. An article on the recent elections in Hong Kong in local elections might be another source that could be used to stimulate student discussion and debate on the question.

 I also thought that this article was particularly relevant given the protests in Hong Kong, and the governments response to the protests there. The government (at least for the moment) has avoided sending in the army to suppress the protestors, but it seems like this kind of digital surveillance and oppression, which is not phsycially violent and thus won't grab international headlines, is both the very kind of thing that protestors are afraid of, and seems like the depressingly likely end result when the world inevitably gets distracted by a different humanitarian crisis, the global spotlight shifts away Hong Kong, and the Chinese government reasserts control.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/04/world/asia/xinjiang-china-surveillance-prison.html