China’s Orwellian State Gets a Thumbs Up from the World
China’s Orwellian State Gets a Thumbs Up from the World
By Todd Strandberg
China has announced that it will soon be able to judge each of its 1.3 billion citizens based on their social behavior. The plan was rolled out earlier this year, and it is rapidly moving closer to reality, with Beijing set to adopt a lifelong points program by 2021 that assigns personalized ratings for each resident.
Each citizen will be given a score on an 18-digit national identification code that is based on their criminal and credit history, their shopping habits, profession, and if they post negative articles or opinions about the government on social media or are connected to people that do, among other things. If a person’s score is low, they may lose the ability to land a new job, rent cars, travel domestically, and they may lose access to the internet or other forms of communication.
A system of public shaming is also being used to keep citizens in line. Some cities have replaced the citizens’ dial tones with recorded messages stating their shortcomings and encouraging callers to chastise them for their failures. The pressure is even being applied to people’s love lives. A cartoon TV advertisement by Credit China shows a man being rejected by his dinner date after she sees a billboard declaring that he’s a blacklisted citizen.
China has long experimented with systems that grade its citizens. The tracking of individual behavior in China has become possible by economic life moving online. Today, you can get loans, pay bills, and travel by using smartphone apps. The Chinese government has made Big Brother a reality by simply adding a kill switch to these functions.
I am just amazed to see how readily people are embracing technology that allows corporations to monitor our activities. It has been well over a decade since anyone cared about the camera that now records all public activity. Now, what we do in our own homes is coming under watch. Google has revealed plans to monitor our moods, our movements, and our children’s behavior at home.
Parents in a research group said Google is developing smart-home products that are capable of eavesdropping on us throughout our home in order to learn more about us and better target us with advertising. It goes much further than the current Google Home speaker that’s promoted to answer our questions and provide useful information, and the Google-owned Nest thermostat that measures environmental conditions in our home. What is planned is a system with sensors and cameras mounted in every room to follow us and analyze what we’re doing throughout our home.
They describe how the cameras can even recognize the image of a movie star on a resident’s t-shirt, connect it to the person’s browsing history, and send the person an ad for a new movie the star is in.
One patent, No. 10,114,351, reads, “According to embodiments of this disclosure, a smart-home environment may be provided with smart-device environment policies that use smart-devices to monitor activities within a smart-device environment, report on these activities, and/or provide smart-device control based upon these activities.”
I can think of many wonderful positives of having Big Brother in our house. If you have a medical emergency, the smart-home device can register that you are having an attack and can call 911. If there is a fire, the fire department can be notified. It would be great to have extra eyes to keep a watch on children that like to get into trouble.
I would never ever have one of these Alexa devices in my house because of the danger to human nature. If something can be used for evil, it will be used. With an open microphone to Big Brother, I would quickly get on the secret naughty list for all my ranting about the liberal media and other leftist groups. During the tribulation, people will have to hide in their garage or basement to read their Bible.
A few days ago I noticed Amazon.com was selling a voice-controlled microwave oven. Since ultra-liberal Jeff Bezos is running the corporation, the day will come when someone will learn that Alexa refuses to warm their Blueberry muffin until they switch their political party affiliations.
When I first heard of China’s blacklist systems, I thought initially it would be strongly condemned by most Western governments, but there is very little said about it. One Democratic congressman said that it’s a good idea. Venezuela likes it so much, it will likely be the first nation to copy China’s ID system. Chinese telecom giant ZTE Corp has been working with the Venezuelan government to provide ID cards to all citizens of that South American nation.
When I first heard about the mark of the beast as a kid, I was puzzled over why people would welcome a system that would mean their enslavement. The old saying “give me liberty Or give me death” has been replaced by “give me convenience Or give me death.” The 666 mark will be very deadly because it offers a host of conveniences.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Revelation 13:16-18).
–Todd