China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

I'm German and (as stereotypes would have it) extremely privacy conscious. Having lived in the US for over a decade I've reluctantly come to terms with the lesser privacy standards here.

For a long time I refused to keep a lot of information on Facebook as Facebook seemed to only consider privacy as an afterthought after users expressed outrage (I appreciate transparency about the use of data so I can make my own decision). I refused to use the sign-in with Facebook functionality as I had no interest in giving third parties access to my FB data. Eventually I just gave up and now use Facebook sign-in everywhere because it simply is much more convenient.

When I traveled to China a year ago the utility of using WeChat or Baidu Maps was simply too great. I was well aware that using these applications almost certainly would surrender information to the Chinese government. Interestingly enough, because I assumed that this would happen one way or another during my 3 months stay I felt more inclined to use these applications.

WeChat is the only viable way to keep in touch with all of my Chinese friends in China and in the US.

The big difference is China is openly undemocratic and the citizens know what they are up against. Here its posturing, misdirection, propaganda, nebulous lists, secret process and the exact same thing only under cover and pretense all working like clockwork to lull the citizens into complacency.

Dial back 10-15 years and try to imagine the response to a news item like this. Hysteria about totalitarianism from the media, endless interviews with academics, ngo and human rights organizations. Grandstanding by politicians and citizens. Where are all these noisy vocal folks? What is orchestrated and what is real?

China is fascinating.

On one hand...

- China has done better than any other country on Earth at poverty reduction. Chinese policy since Deng Xiaoping lifted hundreds of millions of people out of subsistence poverty. Free markets were a big part of this, but so were Special Economic Zones starting with Shenzhen, a culture of sharing IP, massive govt investments in infrastructure, research and education.

- China are also the most successful urbanists today. Many of those 100s of millions of former rural poor are in cities now. In the time it took California to debate building a single High Speed Rail line from SF to LA, China connected their whole country with trains that are much faster, much more useful (because they go directly into urban centers and connect to fast local transit), and much cheaper. Ours still isn't done.

--

And yet, at the same time, China also seems to be prototyping some kind of grim meathook future.

- Extremely aggressive surveillance. Near zero respect for privacy. Govt deputizing the tech sector to spy and censor on their behalf.

- Cities with toxic air. Check out this glorious ad in Beijing right now: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1JrMsKUAAAopPT.jpg

- A closed, censored alternate internet

- "Social Credit" Scores based on surveillance, which look like a frighteningly powerful way to neuter dissent

China moves faster than we do, both for better and for worse. I guess our challenge is to emulate the things they're doing right (eg the vastly more efficient and effective way they build transit), while stopping our own governments from repeating China's mistakes and acts of authoritarian overreach.

Sorry, but judging by how things are going in western nations, especially in the USA, we're more likely to emulate their "mistakes and authoritarian overreach" before we even break ground on that rail from SF to LA.

I'd argue that the vastly more efficient and effective way they build transit is possible because of the authoritarian overreach.

It has to be easy to build a new railway when you can just send the police to evict everyone in the way.