Inside China's surveillance state where millions are watched on Minority Report-style big screen, jaywalkers are caught by facial recognition and police drones bark instructions from loud speakers

Daily Mail UK ^ | 09 26 2025 | SABRINA PENTY

[yesthatjallen]

Britain will introduce a mandatory digital ID scheme for British citizens and residents in an attempt to curb illegal immigration.

But the 'dystopian' plan has been met with furious backlash, with critics arguing that the move could infringe on civil liberties.

Some have even voiced fears such a scheme could spiral into the kind of Orwellian-style surveillance used in China where facial recognition keeps a close eye on their huge population of 1.4 billion.

The communist nation has been expanding its Big Brother-like mass surveillance system across the country.

Chinese cops have been wearing sunglasses equipped with facial-recognition technology to catch criminal suspects over the last seven years.

Transport police in Zhengzhou, central China, were given the cutting-edge gadgets in 2018 to screen passengers and spot suspects in crowds at train stations.

A camera connected to the smartphone-like shades allows officers to take mugshots of an individual in question and compare them to a database back at headquarters.

The system then brings up the suspect's personal information including name, ethnicity, gender and address. All the information is then transferred back to the officer's glasses.

SNIP

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

Squirrel! Look over there!

The Daily Mail isn't seeing a Britain today with Muzzie policewomen interrogating and arresting people over social media "crimes" and all their British CCTV camera coverage. And more....

China's surveillance sucks. British surveillance sucks. Surveillance sucks.

[Puppage]

And, 20 minutes after they eat they’re hungry again.

[DesertRhino]

And Trump’s fave boy Larry Ellison said he wants that here. Says it will make people behave better.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

So, is the text in English, or does it look like The Matrix?

[sauropod]

Great.

[HighSierra5]

The surveillance must be pretty good at finding the difference in looks. Don’t they all look alike?

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "A camera connected to the smartphone-like shades allows officers to take mugshots of an individual in question and compare them to a database back at headquarters. The system then brings up the suspect's personal information including name, ethnicity, gender and address. All the information is then transferred back to the officer's glasses."

Possible readings of this British tabloid article. 1) True. And Chinese tech is so much better than the West. 2) Bullshit. I choose option 2, and what's behind curtain number two, because:

Mark Zuckerberg blames bad Wi-Fi after the live demo of his new $800 smart glasses goes horribly wrong Fortune, 18 September 2025.

Meta Ray Ban Display fail: Here's why Mark Zuckerberg's demo didn't work Tom's Guide, 19 September 2025.

Zuckerberg’s AI glasses live demo fails spectacularly at major tech event FOX4, KDFW, 19 September 2025.

Maybe the Daily Mail's Sabrina Penty is a tech specialist and in contact with MI5 intelligence, but it turns out she "is a Foreign Reporter for Daily Mail. She completed an MA in Investigative Journalism at City University of London in 2022. Having grown up in Madrid, Spain, she speaks fluent Spanish. She has covered a range of world events including the Russia-Ukraine war and the crisis in the Middle East."

For three years, it seems. ( Desde hace tres años, al parecer. )

[grey_whiskers]

From your third article: At first, Zuckerberg showed off a live view through the new glasses and replied to texts using small wrist motions. But the showcase went south.

And I can guess exactly what those wrist motions were. N.B. to ransomnote: top *that*!

[adorno]

The surveillance must be pretty good at finding the difference in looks. Don’t they all look alike?

Do Chinese ever accuse other Chinese of being racist?

[escapefromboston]

Good thing Big Government and Big tech don’t spy on Americans .

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

Sir!

“And I can guess exactly what those wrist motions were. N.B. to ransomnote: top *that*!”

It is a very good thing that my last cuppa has already been consumed this day, or the laptop keyboard would have been caffeinated!

[Carriage Hill]

SKYNET lives!

[yesthatjallen]

The police in the UK are monitoring what people post:

"Police: “When you express things on the internet - do you know how serious it becomes?”

“Because I wrote the letter ‘N’?”"

BGatesIsPsycho Short X Video

[Brian Griffin]

“The Daily Mail isn’t seeing a Britain today with Muzzie policewomen interrogating and arresting people over social media “crimes”’

I’m not seeing British innkeepers nor the insides of British shops.

[adorno]

SKYNET lives!

SKYNET is ancient tech. We're in bigger trouble now.

The current tech has billions of smartphones participating, whether they know it or not.

[jacknhoo]

When Britain did Brexit, I was hoping they did it to escape the totalitarianism the EU was slipping into.

Obviously and apparently, they did Brexit because the EU was moving too slow for them.

[Openurmind]

This is exactly why they are building AI data centers here...

They plan to do the very same thing to us.

[libh8er]

Spent a few days in Shanghai a few years ago. The level of surveillance is insane. Anywhere you are, anywhere you look there is a cluster of cameras in your line of sight with one pointed toward your face. You are *always* on camera from the moment you step outside.

[PGR88]

I know a woman who, while travelling in China, lost a set of expensive sunglasses in a store. She returned to the store shortly after, and reported the loss to store security.

The sunglasses were delivered by Beijing police to her hotel 4 hours later.

Video within the store showed an elderly woman picked-up the lost sunglasses.
video surveillance showed her leaving and getting on a bus
video on the bus showed her transfer to another bus
video showed the stop she at which she exited the bus, and street cameras showed the apartment complex she went into
cops went to the apartment security (they all have them), showed photos and asked which apartment she was in
cops went to the apartment and asked her to return them, which she did.