Anne Applebaum

But they've also begun to be able to attach that online surveillance to real-world surveillance. So... Street cameras, being able to monitor transportation that people use. So they're looking at a person or a group of people. They can track them across time, you know, through different places. Where are they going? Who did they meet? How much money do they spend?

What kinds of things are they buying? The place in China where this has become most extreme and where they seem to be experimenting the most with really trying to understand what people are doing is Xinjiang. This is where the Uyghur population lives. This is a Muslim minority in China that's very heavily repressed. There's DNA testing they do of people.

What kinds of things are they buying? The place in China where this has become most extreme and where they seem to be experimenting the most with really trying to understand what people are doing is Xinjiang. This is where the Uyghur population lives. This is a Muslim minority in China that's very heavily repressed. There's DNA testing they do of people.

What kinds of things are they buying? The place in China where this has become most extreme and where they seem to be experimenting the most with really trying to understand what people are doing is Xinjiang. This is where the Uyghur population lives. This is a Muslim minority in China that's very heavily repressed. There's DNA testing they do of people.

So that's another way in which they keep track of people. They keep track of people's electricity usage because if someone has high use of electricity, then maybe someone is secretly staying in their house. They begin to use all kinds of utilities, transport, credit cards, whatever information they have on people, they can unify it and they can examine what people are doing.

So that's another way in which they keep track of people. They keep track of people's electricity usage because if someone has high use of electricity, then maybe someone is secretly staying in their house. They begin to use all kinds of utilities, transport, credit cards, whatever information they have on people, they can unify it and they can examine what people are doing.

So that's another way in which they keep track of people. They keep track of people's electricity usage because if someone has high use of electricity, then maybe someone is secretly staying in their house. They begin to use all kinds of utilities, transport, credit cards, whatever information they have on people, they can unify it and they can examine what people are doing.

It's pretty clear that the point over time is to understand, is to look for political dissent before it happens. So if they find a group of people who seem to be having intense conversations and are using a lot of electricity and are meeting offline somewhere, then maybe you've identified a political cell or a meeting. And the same thing online. You can trace the development of ideas.

It's pretty clear that the point over time is to understand, is to look for political dissent before it happens. So if they find a group of people who seem to be having intense conversations and are using a lot of electricity and are meeting offline somewhere, then maybe you've identified a political cell or a meeting. And the same thing online. You can trace the development of ideas.

It's pretty clear that the point over time is to understand, is to look for political dissent before it happens. So if they find a group of people who seem to be having intense conversations and are using a lot of electricity and are meeting offline somewhere, then maybe you've identified a political cell or a meeting. And the same thing online. You can trace the development of ideas.

And of course, once you have AI, a lot of this becomes much easier. You can trace how ideas spread, who's using them, who are the nodes of transport, who are the influencers that people are listening to in terms of politics. And of course, a lot of those capabilities we also have in theory. I mean, the tech world has them. U.S. tech companies have them in theory.

And of course, once you have AI, a lot of this becomes much easier. You can trace how ideas spread, who's using them, who are the nodes of transport, who are the influencers that people are listening to in terms of politics. And of course, a lot of those capabilities we also have in theory. I mean, the tech world has them. U.S. tech companies have them in theory.

And of course, once you have AI, a lot of this becomes much easier. You can trace how ideas spread, who's using them, who are the nodes of transport, who are the influencers that people are listening to in terms of politics. And of course, a lot of those capabilities we also have in theory. I mean, the tech world has them. U.S. tech companies have them in theory.

I mean, they haven't necessarily been used in practice. But one of the fears that Americans should have is that eventually they could if they worked sufficiently together with the government or they collaborated, that it's not impossible to imagine how you could do that. And the other point about the Chinese surveillance systems is that they are selling those systems.

I mean, they haven't necessarily been used in practice. But one of the fears that Americans should have is that eventually they could if they worked sufficiently together with the government or they collaborated, that it's not impossible to imagine how you could do that. And the other point about the Chinese surveillance systems is that they are selling those systems.

I mean, they haven't necessarily been used in practice. But one of the fears that Americans should have is that eventually they could if they worked sufficiently together with the government or they collaborated, that it's not impossible to imagine how you could do that. And the other point about the Chinese surveillance systems is that they are selling those systems.

They sell them to other dictatorships. So apparently nobody else has managed to use them with the sophistication that the Chinese have. But I don't know, if you're the government of Zimbabwe, maybe you'd like the capability to follow people around in Harare and know where they are at any given moment.

They sell them to other dictatorships. So apparently nobody else has managed to use them with the sophistication that the Chinese have. But I don't know, if you're the government of Zimbabwe, maybe you'd like the capability to follow people around in Harare and know where they are at any given moment.

They sell them to other dictatorships. So apparently nobody else has managed to use them with the sophistication that the Chinese have. But I don't know, if you're the government of Zimbabwe, maybe you'd like the capability to follow people around in Harare and know where they are at any given moment.

The systems of street cameras have been purchased by a lot of countries, sometimes with benign intent. You know, if you have street cameras, you prevent crime. And the UK has a lot of street cameras. So it's not necessarily to be used for political tracking, but it could be with the wrong kind of government or a lot of ill will.