Full transcript
0:03Improving lives,...
0:05...increasing connectivity across the world.
0:08That's the great promise offered by data-driven technology.
0:12[Protests]
0:15But in China, it also promises greater state control and abuse of power.
0:21[Protests]
0:33This is the next groundbreaking development in data driven technology:...
0:37...facial recognition.
0:42And in China you can already withdraw cash,...
0:47...check-in at airports,...
0:49...and pay for goods, using just your face.
0:54The country is the world's leader in the use of this emerging technology.
1:00And China's many artificial intelligence startups...
1:03...are determined to keep it that way in the future.
1:08Companies like YITU.
1:14We're pioneering...
1:16...Artificial Intelligence research and innovation,...
1:18...in the hope of creating a safer, faster, and healthier world.
1:24[Chinese]
1:28YITU is creating the building blocks for a smart city of the future,...
1:32...where facial recognition is part of everyday life.
1:36This could even extend to detecting what people are thinking.
1:40Facial recognition: they can read people's emotions,...
1:44...and we are actually now working on these innovative demonstrations and technology.
1:52But the Chinese government has plans to use this new biometric technology...
1:57...to cement its authoritarian rule.
2:01The country has ambitious plans to develop a vast national surveillance system,...
2:05...based on facial recognition.
2:08It'll be used to monitor its 1.4 billion citizens...
2:11...in unprecedented ways.
2:14With the capability of tracking everything, from their emotions... to their sexuality.
2:21The primary means will be a vast network of CCTV cameras.
2:26A 170 million are already in place,...
2:29...and an estimated 400 million new ones will be installed over the next three years.
2:35The authorities insist this program will allow them to improve security for citizens,...
2:40...and if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
2:45But not everyone is convinced.
2:48[Chinese]
2:54Hongshen Kwai is a former magazine editor.
2:57He was ousted by the government.
2:59He feels like he's under constant surveillance.
3:02[Chinese]
3:18Already the authorities are using facial recognition to name and shame citizens.
3:23Even for minor offenses, like jaywalking.
3:29In Beijing,...
3:31...they're using the technology to prevent people...
3:33...stealing rolls of loo paper from public toilets.
3:37And across China, police officers are now trialing sunglasses and body cameras,...
3:42...loaded with facial and gesture recognition technology.
3:45It's helping them to identify wanted suspects in real-time.
3:51What worries some people here...
3:53...is that, as the technology develops, so too does the capacity for it to be abused.
4:00[Chinese]
4:19Some of those most at risk in this hyper-surveillance future...
4:23...are the ethnic minorities in China.
4:27In Xinjiang province, the Chinese government is wary of the separatist threat...
4:31...posed by the Muslim Uyghur population.
4:36According to local NGOs,...
4:38...an estimated 1 million Uyghurs...
4:40...are being detained indefinitely in secretive internment camps,...
4:44...where some are being subject to abuse.
4:46It's been called the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.
4:53The authorities are using facial recognition cameras to scan people's faces before they enter markets.
5:00The system alerts authorities if targeted individuals stray 300 meters beyond their home.
5:08In the future, the government plans to aggregate even more data,...
5:12...and build a predictive policing programme...
5:14...that imposes even tighter controls here.
5:18Without checks and balances,...
5:20...China will keep finding new ways to violate the human rights of its citizens.
5:26What's already happening in Xinjiang is a warning the rest of the world must heed.