Abstracts

"Reading China": The Internet of Things, Social Management and Surveillance

by Pieter Velghe




Institution: Leiden University
Department:
Year: 2017
Keywords: Internet China social management surveillance
Posted: 02/01/2018
Record ID: 2208089
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/1887/52275


Abstract

The Chinese state has recently put a lot of emphasis on making informatization (xinxihua) the key engine of domestic economic and societal development. However, these plans also include schemes such as the controversial Social Credit System. By bolstering the power of technology, the Chinese leadership hopes to increase the centralization of governing power and at the same time increase its control over Chinese society. New technologies such as Big Data or the Internet of Things (IoT) become crucial in these endeavors but these come not without risk, as they can be comprised or malfunction. By analyzing the policy documents issued on a technology like the IoT, this thesis tries to scrutinize the envisioned scope of the Chinese leaderships techno ambitions. This wide scope goes from using this technology to transform anything from manufacturing to medical care, to improving social management and military-civil integration (junmin ronghe).Advisors/Committee Members: Creemers, Rogier (advisor).