Population control: China uses Covid apps to isolate political dissidents

The Chinese communist regime uses its technology originally intended to control Covid to tighten political control over dissidents and anyone else it considers problematic.

The basis of this control is the so-called traffic light application: a program that assigns Chinese citizens three colors, red, yellow or green, to determine the risk of Covid infection. If you are labeled green, you can move about freely. However, if your app turns red it means you must go into instant quarantine. The app has access to private information about the user's health and other personal data and involves extensive storage of citizens' behavioral and location data in China.

This video explains schematically how it works:

Cities and major access roads are lined with automated code readers. From the air, drones flying over traffic display a QR code that drivers must scan in order to move forward. The information is managed by what is described as "local big data management offices.”

Population control

These traffic lights go far beyond Covid. In June, hundreds of investors who were victims of an alleged financial scam tried to mobilize to demand explanations from a bank that had frozen their money. When they tried to reach the headquarters of the bank, located in the province of Henan, their Covid apps had already labeled them red. The protesters were immediately detained by the police and taken to quarantine hotels. They tested negative for Covid, but the protest was derailed before it even took place.

This was not the first time that the traffic light app was used to repress political dissidents. Last year Xie Yang, a human rights lawyer, attempted to travel to Shanghai to visit the mother of a journalist imprisoned by the Chinese regime. His app was green and no cases of Covid were reported in his city. However, when he arrived at the airport his app turned red and he was unable to make his visit. "The Chinese Communist Party has found the best model for controlling people," he said shortly afterward. In January he was detained on charges of inciting subversion.

These are some examples of population control that seems to be here to stay. The Chinese Communist Party was in favor of extending this app beyond the 'Covid era.’ For the time being, the Chinese authorities continue to expand their quarantine facilities. Just this week, the regime announced a $221 million investment to build an isolation center on an island near Shanghai. It will have more than 3,000 rooms, making it an ideal place for the government to make any annoyed citizen disappear.