The fate of America is being made in China, our role model for all things dystopian.
An economic and political powerhouse that owns more of America’s debt than any other country and is buying up American businesses across the spectrum, China is a vicious totalitarian regime that routinely employs censorship, surveillance, and brutal police state tactics to intimidate its populace, maintain its power, and expand the largesse of its corporate elite.
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In much the same way that Chinese products have infiltrated almost every market worldwide and altered consumer dynamics, China is now exporting its “authoritarian tech” to governments worldwide ostensibly in an effort to spread its brand of totalitarianism worldwide.
Where China goes, the United States eventually follows. This way lies outright tyranny.
Censorship. China’s censorship machine is straight out of Orwell’s “1984” with government agencies and corporations working together to limit the populace’s freedom of expression. Government agencies routinely harass and intimidate anyone seen as non-compliant. Activists are frequently penalized for gathering in public places and charged criminally with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” China has also gone to great lengths to muzzle journalists reporting on corruption or human rights abuses.
Surveillance. COVID-19 brought China’s Orwellian surveillance out of the shadows and gave China the perfect excuse for unleashing the full force of its expansive and sophisticated surveillance and data collection powers on its citizenry and the rest of the world. Facial recognition cameras, geofence surveillance and cell phone carriers track people’s movements constantly, reporting in real time to data centers that can be accessed by government agents and employers alike and allow authorities to track so-called criminal acts, such as jaywalking, which factor into a person’s social credit score. And coded color alerts (red, yellow and green) sort people into categories that correspond to the amount of freedom of movement they’re allowed.
DNA databases. China — like the U.S. — has been building a massive DNA database of its citizens, which it has used in order to crack down on dissenters and surveil the population. These DNA databases are fast becoming a de facto way for the government to identify and track people from birth to death, rendering us suspects in a DNA lineup waiting to be matched up with a crime. DNA technology in the hands of government officials will complete our transition to a Surveillance State. By accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they don’t already know: your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc.
Social media credit scores. Social media credit scores assigned to Chinese individuals and businesses categorize them on whether or not they are “good” citizens. A “citizen score” determines one’s place in society based on one’s loyalty to the government. A real-name system—which requires people to use government-issued ID cards to buy mobile sims, obtain social media accounts, take a train, board a plane, or even buy groceries—coupled with social media credit scores ensures that those blacklisted as “unworthy” are banned from accessing financial markets, buying real estate or traveling by air or train.
Safe, smart cities. Having pioneered the development of so-called “safe” smart cities, China is exporting worldwide the high-tech communities in which residents are monitored round the clock, their every action under constant surveillance, and every device is connected to a central brain operated by artificial intelligence.
Digital currency. China has already adopted a government-issued digital currency, which not only allows it to surveil and seize people’s financial transactions, but can also work in tandem with its social credit score system to punish individuals for moral lapses and social transgressions (and reward them for adhering to government-sanctioned behavior).
China’s global influence, its technological reach, its quest for world domination, and its rigid demand for compliance are pushing us towards a world in chains.
What too many fail to recognize, however, is that China and the American Deep State have joined forces. This is fascism hiding behind a thin veneer of open government and populist elections. Thus, no matter who runs for office, no matter who controls the White House, Senate or the House of Representatives now or in the future, what we must come to terms with is the fact that the future of this nation is being forged beyond the reach of our laws, elections and borders by techno-authoritarian powers with no regard for individuality, privacy or freedom.
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Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His latest books “The Erik Blair Diaries” and “Battlefield America: The War on the American People” are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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