OPINION

China mimics Orwellian dystopia

News, Peter Apps, Published on 18/10/2017

» As tens of thousands of Chinese drinkers walked into a beer festival in the eastern port city of Qingdao in August, a software programme scanned their pictures. Those identified as being on a police list of wanted persons were pinpointed in less than a second. By the end of the three-week event, authorities had made 25 arrests, including one of someone on the run for a decade. According to police, the programme had correctly matched faces in 98% of cases.