Watchful EYE! Wednesday.

Watchful EYE! Wednesday.

China. A country seemingly under total governmental control. So much so, that one of it’s citizens (“dissidents”) was arrested with the use of facial recognition technology, or at least, that’s what he and his lawyer are claiming.

On December 19^th 2017, the “dissident” in question, a Chinese writer by the name of Li Xeuwen, 40, was arrested for “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order”...

What did he do exactly? He went to a memorial to commemorate Nobel prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, on July 17^th 2017, he had died on July 13^th due to a prolonged illness he had developed in prison.

Anyone who participated in the memorial was later targeted, as the Chinese regime sees any commemorative events for activists such as Liu Xiaobo as not only an act of defiance, but one of actual political dissent. An act of defiance so "GRAVE" they are willing to jail you for it....

Now, the only thing at this moment that suggests that facial recognition was used to catch this “dissident” is a statement released by his lawyer. And it can’t be independently verified. But, if you read, even a little bit about China’s mass surveillance system it really doesn’t seem that unlikely.....

Especially if you consider that the Xinhua news agency reported that facial recognition cameras had been installed in Guangzhou metro station to help policing and “counter terrorism” operations as early as 2015!

Already, back then. This system could “identify 5 individuals in one second” and once their faces were matched to theirs in the criminal database, the system would automatically alert police who were nearby with notifications via their cell phones.

The Xinhua report stated that the system would “only” check the facial data it collected against the existing criminal database. However... According to PCI-Suntek Technology’s website they also save a “digital print” of all the images of the faces it captures.

This means that the system could potentially be used to monitor the travel patterns of all the people it had ever scanned. Including everyone not in the criminal database.

PCI-Suntek has already added these surveillance systems to the train stations of at least 17 cities in China.

China’s regime is seeking to control it’s population of 1.4 billion anyway it can. And instead of using this technology to keep people safe, they are using it to keep people silent.

The arrest of “dissident” Li would seem to confirm some people’s predictions that China is trying to bring an Orwellian Nightmare of digitized totalitarianism to China. And that should really worry us all....

If their government can do it to their citizens, then why can’t ours?

Just something I think people should consider. Because I really don’t want to see our liberties lost in the pursuit of “order”.

Here’s a few small paintings I did today. I really like the blue and silver one. Let me know what you think!

Happy Wednesday Everyone, hope the third day of this new year is treating you well. :)

Sincerely, Bret Frick.