A predictive policing tool described as a “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System,” on display at the recent Zhuhai Air Show in Guangdong province, has attracted considerable backlash online. After photos and descriptions of the promotional display appeared on the Chinese website Douban (a social network for discussions, recommendations, and reviews of books, music, movies, and more), Douban users drew parallels to “1984,” “Thought Police,” and the biometrics-based predictive-policing regime depicted in the dystopian Japanese anime series “Psycho-Pass.”
A post from Douban user “Ding Yi” included a blurb from manufacturer Guangdong Zhaobang Smartech, Ltd. noting that the system “employed security-camera footage to collect and analyze data on the behaviors, gaits, facial expressions, and vestibular vibrations of people in a crowd in order to identify those exhibiting abnormal emotions.”
A crowd of exhibition-goers examine a display that features two video screens. A sign above the left-hand screen reads “Mood recognition,” and a sign above the right-hand screen reads, “Testing zone.” A larger sign above the display reads: “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System: Mood recognition devices, mood management solutions.”
CDT Chinese editors have compiled some of the horrified comments from Douban users in reaction to the prototype “Crowd Mood Monitoring and Early Warning System”:
老实敦厚的西卡: An abomination.
火鳥代理人: Ugh, can’t believe this is on display in Zhuhai, of all places.
招财猫: That doesn’t go far enough. I have a plan for world peace: just implant a chip in everyone. Think they’ll let me be cyber-czar?
Jesse: “Psycho-Pass”
Daisy: Orwell would be impressed.
chromOsomE: Terrifying…
冰川: Is the world of “Psycho-Pass” becoming real?
来吃饼干吗: “Psycho-Pass” is more full of “golden nuggets” than ever…
王晓小: Next step: they’ll add a “kill mode.”
momo: A new application for 5G has been discovered.
唐僧洗头爱飘柔: 1984
木白術: This is obviously a response to current events. They’re just trying to generate hype to drum up more venture capital.
马孔多的雨: Excellent, now they can create more jobs by adding half a million “Thought Police.” [Chinese]
The display of the predictive-policing crowd-control prototype comes amid a spate of mass-casualty vehicular and stabbing attacks that have alarmed Chinese citizens, resulted in severe online censorship, led to calls for better prevention and security, and even prompted a rare response from Xi Jinping himself. In the last ten days alone, a man rammed his car into a crowd of elementary-school students in Changde, Hunan province; a former student killed eight people and injured 17 others in a stabbing spree at a vocational school in Yixing, Jiangsu province; and another man plowed an SUV into crowds exercising outside a sports center in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 others.
These violent attacks of “revenge against society” by desperate individuals who may feel they have nothing left to lose have prompted an outpouring of analysis and soul-searching on the Chinese internet. They have also pushed many local governments to apply predictive methods to identify troubled or disgruntled residents who might potentially be prone to violence. Focusing on labeling and stigmatizing such individuals—rather than providing them with support systems and early intervention—is deeply controversial, as a number of recent articles and essays attest. One now-censored essay from the WeChat account “Common Sense Distribution Center” notes the popularity of the term “four lacks and five frustrations.” The “four lacks” refer to people who lack a spouse or children; a job or stable income; normal social interactions; and financial assets such as a house or car. The “five frustrations” refer to frustrations over failed investments, estranged relationships, feelings of being thwarted in one’s daily life, loss of emotional “equilibrium,” and suffering from mental illness.
The use of biometric data, predictive policing, and surveillance tools against Tibetan and Uyghur communities, petitioners, activists, and dissidents in China has been well documented. CDT archives include reports on digital surveillance and DNA collection in Tibet; and the use of facial recognition, various surveillance methods, and collection of DNA and biometric data from Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Other reports focus on police geographic information system (PGIS) procurement, rural surveillance systems, export of surveillance technology, the expansion of the “surveillance state,” and expert and public concern over the use of facial– and emotional-recognition systems.
