We have been harmonised: Life in China's surveillance state eBook: Kai Strittmatter, Ruth Martin: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

We have been harmonised: Life in China's surveillance state eBook: Kai Strittmatter, Ruth Martin: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store






We have been harmonised: Life in China's surveillance stateKindle Edition
by Kai Strittmatter (Author), Ruth Martin (Translator)

Length: 336 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting:Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled

Print Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Old Street Publishing (24 May 2019)

CHINA TODAY. TOMORROW, THE WORLD?
In China's shiny new 'Smart Cities', citizens can scarcely cross the road or buy an orange without the Party knowing, and posting a satirical online comment about President Xi's Winnie-the-Pooh-like features can land you in jail.
A generation after the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, China's autocratic leaders are using powerful new technologies to create the largest and most effective surveillance state the world has ever seen. 
This is a journey into a land where Big Brother has acquired a whole new set of toys with which to control and cajole -- 'harmonise' -- the masses. It is also a warning against Western complacency. Beijing is already finding eager buyers for its 'Operating System for Dictators' -- in Africa and Asia, Russia and the Middle East. And with China's corporate giants -- all ultimately under Party control -- being offered a place at the heart of Europe's vital infrastructure, it is time we paid attention.

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Review

*OBSERVER BOOK OF THE WEEK*
'Remarkable... the most accessible and best informed account we have had to date of China's transition from ''networked authoritarianism'' to what is now a form of networked totalitarianism'
OBSERVER

'This chilling book reveals just how far China has already gone in monitoring and controlling its citizens digitally… deeply researched and compellingly argued… [Strittmatter] breaks new ground by forcing readers to confront the effect that technological change has had on the power of the state… a lucid guide to the system and a warning call'
SUNDAY TIMES

'The unholy alliance of Artificial Intelligence with an unscrupulous human intelligence... this is the dark subject on which Strittmatter shines a much-needed light. His book should be read by everyone, not just those interested in China'
FAZ --...

About the Author

Kai Strittmatter has studied China for more than 30 years. For over a decade he lived and worked there as a correspondent for the national broadsheet Sueddeutsche Zeitung, taking the decision to leave the country prior to publication of this book. He is the author of China A-Z.

Dr Barry Clayton
#1 REVIEWER#1 HALL OF FAME
5.0 out of 5 starsDictatorship For the Information Age.2 June 2019
Format: Paperback
The global balance of power is slowly and steadily moving in favour of Asia. Within twenty five years one third of humankind will be Indian and Chinese. Of these two states the West faces the greatest economic and military dangers from a China determined to exert her influence on the world.

China today, argues the author of this important book, is not the China pre Xi Jinping. Under Xi a new regime has placed some 1.3 billion citizens under a tight surveillance state. It is aiming to shape the world in its own image. Xi wields power that has not been seen in China since the days of Mao Zedong. He rules a country whose power, particularly military power, is stronger than it has been for hundreds of years.

At the same time, the West is on a path that smacks of self- destruction. The explosion of information technology which permits control and manipulation as never before means that 1984 has become a reality. As Strittmatter says the implications for the West are immense. The CCP can now erase minds as well as lives.

In the West we are experiencing fake news and alternative facts. Lies are bandied about-see Referendum claims- without shame. Trump and others in this country are shamelessly economical with the truth. Xi has promised the Chinese a new age. We should be nervous about such claims. Today, China is again in the grip of a Marxist /Leninist ideology plus a dash of Confucius and nationalism. He has, says the author, ' breathed a new purpose into the Party'.

In China the army belongs not to the state but to the Party. The state also belongs to the CCP. In 2024 the Party will have become the longest-reigning Communist Party In history. The belief in the West that growing prosperity would result in political liberation has been shown to be wrong. This book believes a one man dictatorship is now firmly entrenched in China. He has an iron grip on the Party. Any voices that oppose his are stifled. Xi has a fetish for control. Mind control is again back in vogue in order to achieve the dream of Marx, and Lenin, namely new men. Unlike Mao's day, Xi has new technological tools to help him.

China no longer fears the Internet, the Party embraces it. AI and information technology are being used as surveillance tools. The detail given here are disturbing. A national social credit system is being developed that from next year will record every action and transaction by every citizen in real time. Behaviour will be rewarded or punished. The aim is to harmonise people, who will learn to vendor and sanction themselves. Mute complicity is the target. The author describes this as 'totalitarianism dressed in digital garb'. It is time for the West to wake up.

The author spent many years in China first as a student and then as a journalist from 1997-2005, and from 2012 to 2018. His excellent book is organised in three sections: one examines the mechanisms of dictatorship, how it uses terror and repression. One explores the reinvention of dictatorship in China by using new technologies. The third section asks whether Xi's plans will succeed, and if so what it means for the West.

This will prove to be one of the most important books of the year. It is erudite, very convincing and balanced. China is on the march and the world had better take note.

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Martin Smietanko
5.0 out of 5 starsA lot to chew over!2 July 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
there is a lot that we ared not being told! An incredible assembly of evidence presented in a very readable fashion .