Josh Chin, Deputy China Bureau Chief at The Wall Street Journal and an expert on China's surveillance state, discusses the unprecedented protests in China sparked by strict COVID restrictions. He highlights how social media has empowered citizens to challenge government control. The conversation delves into the historical evolution of China's surveillance apparatus and the parallels between its methods and those used by tech giants. Chin illuminates the potential impact of these protests on government policies and the vulnerabilities they expose within the authoritarian regime.
The protests in China might force the government to back down from its extreme Covid restrictions and ramp up its extreme surveillance programs. The Wall Street Journal’s Josh Chin explains.
This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and edited by Sean Rameswaram who also hosted.