Smart Governance, Smarter Surveillance

Abstract

Xi Jinping’s 习近平 regard for socialist buzzwords and phrases is legendary. The China Dream 中国梦, the Four Comprehensives 四个全面, The Party Leads Over Everything 党是领导一切的, and, more recently, Common Prosperity 共同富裕 are a few of the more popular framing devices for Xi’s ambitious agenda. But in terms of its ability to encapsulate precisely what is happening on the (political) ground in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and reflect the Party-State’s raw ambitions, there is one in Xi’s lexicon that rules them all: Modernisation of Governance Capacity 治理能力现代化. This phrase, adopted as the main theme of the Fourth Plenum of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Nineteenth Central Committee held in 2019,1 is now helping to direct and shape new developments in big data and smart surveillance in accordance with socialist ideology, reaching into every part of people’s everyday lives. Aspects of comprehensive smart surveillance are now being written into national development goals and law, thus creating a full package of surveillance, social and economic development, ideology, and governance.