The province of Henan in China is building a surveillance system to detect journalists and other “people of concern,” according to documents reviewed by BBC News. The system will use a 3,000 facial camera recognition grid linked to various national and regional databases to classify journalists into a “traffic-light” system, designating them either green, amber, or red. According to the documents, journalists in the “red” category would be “dealt with accordingly.” The system will also track international students and migrant women.
A company called Neusoft, based in Shenyang, has won a $782,000 contract to develop the surveillance system. They intend to link and cross-reference data with cell phones, social media (WeChat, Weibo), vehicle details, hotel stays, travel tickets, property ownership, and photos from existing databases.
