China is shutting down corona apps – the state still has the data power

Dusseldorf One of the most searched terms on the Baidu search engine right now is the Chinese word for fever. 1.3 billion people in the People’s Republic were catapulted into a fairly extensive relaxation by a zero-Covid policy that had lasted for almost three years.

Beijing hospitals are preparing for an onslaught of corona patients. Parcels are piling up on some streets because so many delivery people are absent due to illness. The authorities have stopped the mandatory tests and only publish the number of symptomatic cases recorded.

In the wake of this small revolution, the government has also shut down the national Covid travel app, which tracks users’ location. The Tongxin Xincheng app was used to determine whether the user came from a Chinese location classified as a risk area. Travel restrictions or test and quarantine requirements then applied accordingly.

The service went offline this week. The travel data of all users would be deleted, the authorities said. This makes it clear that the app will no longer be used as a national movement control tool.

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It is unclear what will happen to the many programs that individual cities and provinces have developed and used. They too have Orwellian potential, as a case in Henan province has shown. Authorities had rigged the app to send users a quarantine notice so they couldn’t attend a local protest over property problems.

China’s government has data power

But even if these apps disappear with the move away from the zero-Covid policy, “data-driven government power” remains, as technology expert Kendra Schaefer from the consulting firm Trivium puts it.

Because the data on which the apps are based is passed on, whether on train and plane trips, health and mobile phone connections. In the case of the nationwide travel app, the country’s three largest telecom groups China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile provided their information. Mass surveillance is therefore still possible, but without showing it to people via mandatory apps.

Asia Technonomics

In the weekly column we take turns writing about innovation and economic trends in Asia.

(Photo: Klawe Rzeczy)

The so-called social credit system has the potential to do this if it is rolled out uniformly across the country in the coming years. The first projects were started in 2014, but so far it has not gone as far as originally planned.

Individual fragments of the points system, which rewards or punishes people and companies for good or bad behavior, are now to be bundled by law. All Chinese should be given a number according to a uniform system.

>> Read also: There is a lack of medicine, hospital beds and staff: China is facing the Covid chaos

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Central Bank have tabled a draft law dealing with the system by which credit ratings are assigned. On this first basis, the legal structure, the responsibilities and the extent of the social credit system should then be clarified. Comments could be submitted up until this week.

Credit conditions and school access: power over the social credit system

Officially, the government is about building a credit rating system – for companies, for citizens and for government employees. A company’s credit rating takes into account a variety of factors, such as the quality of the products or services on offer, the environmental impact, the contribution to society, and tax and legal practices.

Those who do poorly can then be monitored more closely and have poorer market access. Foreign companies already fear that they could be discriminated against using this tool.

In extreme cases, citizens can be excluded from promotions or access to certain schools or restricted in their freedom to travel via the credit rating. A high score means faster access to public housing, discounts on local public transport, cheaper credit and even shorter waiting times in hospitals.

Here, too, when preparing for the upcoming nationwide launch, it still has to be clarified what exactly points or point deductions are for. However, one thing is clear: it will become a central instrument of state power. Beijing is building on its data power.

In the Asia Techonomics column, Nicole Bastian, Dana Heide, Sabine Gusbeth, Martin Kölling and Mathias Peer take turns reporting on the most important technological and economic trends in the world’s most dynamic region.

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