China’s Sharp Eyes surveillance system puts the security focus on public shaming
- Security becomes spectacle as surveillance system is rolled out in rural Chinese villages
- Proponents say cameras are beating crime; human rights groups claim they threaten civil liberties
When a resident of Anxi village in China’s southwest Sichuan province set fire to a pile of rubbish two years ago, a loudspeaker barked his name and ordered him to put the blaze out. He extinguished the flames and scuttled away.
He had been caught on a surveillance camera, monitored around the clock on one of 16 screens in the village security control room.
“Everyone knew who the culprit was, so he would never dare to do that again,” said the local Communist Party secretary, Yin Xiuqin, 55.
The surveillance video in Anxi is also broadcast to cellphones and some televisions – placing busybodies on the front line of local security.
People know they are always being watched. Fear of shaming is the essence of Sharp Eyes – or Xue Liang – a project being tested in 50 towns as part of what will become a nationwide system.
The name appears to be drawn from a Mao-era slogan aimed at encouraging people to denounce those who failed to follow the Communist Party creed: “The people have sharp eyes.”
