China has responded to the coronavirus by turbocharging its surveillance state — and it has successfully sold its new brand of ‘digital authoritarianism’ as a best practice model to the rest of the world.
Governance and security expert Lydia Khalil joins us for Season 3. Lydia discusses how the coronavirus gave China the opportunity to put “tech-enabled authoritarianism” into practice on a large scale. She warns that those who praise China’s coronavirus response risk promoting “a growing acceptance of mass surveillance, habituation to restrictions on liberties and fewer checks on the collection and use of personal data by the state, even after the public health crisis subsides.”