He wore a balaclava and goggles to cover his face. When it appeared that plainclothes police were following him, he fell into the bushes and changed into a new jacket. He lost his tail. That night, when Mr. Zhang, who is in his 20s, returned home without being arrested, he thought he was in the clear. But the police called the next day. They knew he had gone out because they were able to trace his phone to the protest area, they told him. Twenty minutes later, even though he hadn’t told them where he lived, three police officers knocked on his door. Similar stories are being told by protesters across China this week, according to interviews with the groups targeted and human rights groups following the cases. As authorities try to track down, intimidate and arrest those who marched in defiance of the government’s strict Covid policies last weekend, they are turning to powerful surveillance tools that the state has spent the past decade building for moments like this, when segments of the population come and challenge the authority of China’s ruling CCP. Police used faces, telephones and informants to track down those involved in the protests. They usually make those they detect promise not to protest again. Often inexperienced at being tracked, protesters expressed embarrassment at how they were discovered. Fearing further repercussions, many have deleted foreign apps such as Telegram that have been used to coordinate and spread images of protests abroad. Chinese police have assembled one of the most sophisticated surveillance systems in the world. They have hung cameras by the millions on street corners and building entrances. They have purchased powerful facial recognition software and programmed it to recognize local citizens. Special software shreds the collected data and images.
Understand the protests in China
Although the construction of the surveillance system was not a secret, it felt remote to many in China. Police use it most often to track dissidents, ethnic minorities and migrant workers. Many express their support with the idea that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. Last week’s hearings may shake that outlook. It is the first time the surveillance state has directly targeted large numbers of middle-class people in China’s wealthiest cities. While many have experience with censorship – and this week proved they can sometimes get around it – a police visit to the home is less frequent and more intimidating. “We hear stories of police showing up on people’s doorsteps asking where they are during the protests, and this seems to be based on evidence gathered through mass surveillance,” said Alkan Akad, China researcher at Amnesty International. “China’s ‘Big Brother’ technology never shuts down, and the government hopes it will now demonstrate its effectiveness in eliminating unrest,” he added. The marches and demonstrations were some of the most widespread and openly political since those in 1989, which Beijing suppressed with lethal military force in Tiananmen Square. Now Chinese authorities can quell the unrest by using the high-tech dragnet to target the organizers and the most outspoken malcontents and detain them. Followers and viewers often get away with a stern threat. Mr. Zhang’s experience is common. Although he knew about the facial recognition cameras that fill China’s public spaces, he underestimated the phone trackers. Tiny boxes with antennas, the devices are much easier to lose. Mimicking a cell phone tower, they connect to the phones of all passers-by and record the data for the police to review. But Mr. Zhang, who like other protesters interviewed for this article declined to give his full name for fear of police retaliation, was lucky. After harsh questioning and a warning not to attend a protest again, the police left his apartment. He said the ordeal had left him “terrified” and believed it would be effective in curbing the momentum the rallies had built. “It will be very difficult to mobilize people again,” he said. “At that point, people will come off the streets.” For others, their face gave them away. One man, Mr. Wang, who took part in the protests in Beijing, said he received a warning phone call from the police two days after Sunday’s rally. He was told he had been identified by facial recognition technology. Unlike other Beijing protesters, Mr. Wang did not cover his face with a hat or sunglasses and removed his medical mask at one point during the event. He said he wasn’t surprised police were able to identify him, but the use of such technology made him uncomfortable. “I knew the dangers of going to such a gathering,” he said. “If they want to find us, they will surely succeed.” The call from the police lasted just 10 minutes, but the officer did his best to intimidate him: “He made it clear there was no second chance.” After being arrested or approached by police, many protesters avoided using VPNs (virtual private networks) or other foreign apps such as Telegram and Signal. The fear, they said, is that now that they are on the authorities’ radar, the software they use on their phones may be more closely monitored, leading to more police attention and possible detention. A man who was arrested on Monday during a protest in Chengdu in central China said his phone was searched while he was being held by police, who saw that he had Telegram and other foreign apps. Deleted the apps when it was released. Some protesters tried to resist surveillance, using tactics similar to those used in Hong Kong in 2019, when protesters tried to reveal the identities of police officers just as the police tried to reveal them. This week a list of the identities of some 60,000 Shanghai police officers was distributed to some Telegram groups. The spreadsheet of names came from a 2020 leak of Chinese Communist Party members, according to cybersecurity group Internet 2.0, which investigated the original leak. The New York Times confirmed the accuracy of some of the data, which included the officers’ social security numbers, addresses, marital status, nationality and height. For many protesters, the shock of being identified served as an intimidation tactic in itself. Ms Wang, a filmmaker in her 20s, said she joined a group of friends in Beijing on Sunday night. Together they took precautions: They covered their faces with medical masks, took taxis several kilometers away and walked to the vigil site. Even though they were warned to turn off their phones, they simply turned off the GPS and Face ID functions. “We thought at the time, there were so many people. Think about it, how could they find each one? How could they have the energy to catch everyone?’ he said. She and her friends were scared when several of them received calls or visits from the police. Some were forced to assist the police in their investigation by going to the station. “I think my friends, if there is a next time, will not dare to go,” he said. However, Ms. Wang slipped through the cracks of the net. That night she used a phone with a number that was not linked to systems that could identify her, such as the country’s health code software used to track Covid cases and ensure people are regularly tested in outbreak areas. She was undaunted by her experience. “I’ll still go. if the police find me, we’ll see,” he said. When asked if he would ever attend a public rally again, he added: “I just feel like you have to go.” John Liu contributed reporting.
