Handling COVID-19 with big data in China: increasing ‘governance capacity’ or ‘function creep’?

ABSTRACT

Building a national system of social governance (guojia zhili tixi), which is the long-running governance dream of Xi Jinping, has triggered the creation of China’s ‘smart state’ using the tools of new information technologies to advance governance capacity (zhili nengli). These systems were already deployed nationally when the COVID-19 pandemic hit China, but were connected at a lesser capacity, targeting specific domains of security, industry or government administration. In response to the crisis, multiple technologies have been merged, exceeding the scope of their originally intended functions. This is known as function creep, when surveillant technologies remain functional past achievement of their intended purpose, or surveillant assemblages, where multiple surveillant technologies are combined. As more countries turn to digitalisation to increase public security and intensify social and market governance, the expansion of surveillant functions in China and their now-palpable effects on people’s lives raises new and pressing questions for scholars and decision-makers alike.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronavirus
• epidemiological surveillance
• governance capacity
• function creep

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ausma Bernot

Ausma Bernot is a PhD Candidate at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University. She has seven years of work experience with forensic science and research organisations across the globe, in particular China, where she had the chance to gain insights on how technologies are governed at provincial and national levels. Being fluent in Mandarin and building on existing networks in China, Ausma has excellent capabilities to access key information on both technology and governance in the country. Her current research interests focus on the effects that the merging of infotech and biotech triggers in the fields of governance, surveillance, policing, and public safety. Ausma’s doctoral research explores the dynamic interaction between surveillance technologies and social context and questions the multifaceted conditions that allow for the totalisation of surveillance in China.

Alexander Trauth-Goik

Alexander Trauth-Goik is a PhD candidate at the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong. His current research focuses on cross-cultural perceptions and justifications for digital technologies and the ways in which big data is being used to govern populations as part of China’s Social Credit System. Alex has previously worked as a media intelligence analyst and graduated in 2017 with First Class Honours in International Studies majoring in Chinese Mandarin from the University of Wollongong. He has delivered guest lecturers on his PhD research at Monash University, the University of Melbourne and abroad for Arizona State University. Alex is also a volunteer facilitator for the charity Talktomebro and non-for-profit Equal Playing Field.

Susan Trevaskes

Susan Trevaskes is Professor of Chinese Studies at Griffith University. Her research has resulted in over 60 publications including the first books in English on criminal courts contemporary China (2007), policing serious crime in China (2010), and the death penalty reform in China (2012). She has published papers on Chinese justice in a number of journals including The China Journal, The British Journal of Criminology, The China Quarterly, and Modern China. Her latest co-edited volumes are The Politics of Law and Stability in China (2014), Legal Reforms and Deprivation of Liberty in Contemporary China (2016) Justice: the China Experience (2017) and The Party and the Law in China: Ideology and Organisation (2021).