Engineering Obedience: China’s AI Surveillance State Should Scare Freedom-Loving Americans
China is exposing the violent reality of authoritarian tech surveillance, a system deceptively pitched as a public safety benefit.
Under the banner of public safety, efficiency, and "social harmony," the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fused artificial intelligence, mass data collection, and behavioral analytics into a single, all-seeing surveillance state—and America could very well be next.
In recent years, American tech giants have become de facto regulators of AI while simultaneously controlling a bottomless pit of user data. While they obviously do not follow the same model as the CCP, and of course do not have the same ability to openly abuse citizen data, they justify surveillance in the name of safety and regulation.
We have seen censorship rebranded as "misinformation control," and deplatforming justified with terms of service agreements. One very popular example is the suppression of political content on Twitter, now X, during the 2020 presidential election.
Most recently, the American people have seen a new issue arise. The creation of a centralized silo of American data. In 2025, the federal government contracted with Palantir Technologies, a U.S. data analytics and software firm, to provide tools that allow the federal government to build a master database of Americans’ information.
While the idea of creating a single silo of information that can be used across different agencies sounds productive, it opens the door for bad actors to abuse Americans’ private data.
As Americans continue to watch political content be labeled and removed, and NGO's build massive databases to track citizens, technology in policing simultaneously reaches new, potentially worrying levels.
Law enforcement agencies across the United States are steadily expanding the use of cameras, facial recognition, pattern recognition, and real-time reporting—broadening the reach of surveillance over the American people, all in the name of safety.
The United States remains leaps and bounds behind the CCP when it comes to authoritarian tech surveillance, but it is critical for the American people to understand how these systems take shape. After all, the same companies that lead the charge on data privacy, surveillance, and AI in America are the very companies that played a hands-on role in building the CCP’s surveillance state.
Despite warnings from Congress that this technology was being used to quash dissent, persecute religious sects, and target minorities, American tech companies sold billions of dollars’ worth of technology to the Chinese police, government, and surveillance firms. They also introduced "predictive policing" to China—technology that ingests and analyzes massive amounts of data to prevent crime, protests, or terror attacks before they occur.
China serves as a canary in the coal mine for the inevitable rise of authoritarian surveillance technology and AI used to control a populace rather than benefit the people. Before Americans can identify and correct similar issues at home, they must first understand just how severe authoritarian technology has become in China.
China’s All-Seeing Eye
Over half of the world’s one billion surveillance cameras are in China, and together they create an unescapable web of state surveillance.
This tech web allows the CCP to issue traffic violations at ease or make sure criminals do not run rampant in the streets, but it also has a dark underbelly. Alongside the streamlining of everyday bureaucracy, China's vast tech infrastructure and AI advancement has permitted the CCP to persecute Christians, Muslims, journalists, those critical of the government, and quite frankly anyone they please—all behind the ever-growing veil of Artificial Intelligence.
The CCPs strategic centralization of data has streamlined the everyday lives of its citizens, but with ease of access comes a cage built with technology. The same apps used to order food and check social media are used to buy train tickets and pay bills—and they are all under the hand of the CCP.
This change didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn't pitched as a tool for control. At first, it was marketed to the public as a safety measure and a harmless way to streamline information. But the use of data has gone further than just catching criminals and streamlining food orders.
It has become an all-inclusive hive-mind that gives the CCP every piece of information possible on all of its citizens.
The CCP's surveillance state utilizes:
- Facial and voice recognition.
- Biometric databases of fingerprints, blood samples, voiceprints, iris scans, facial images, and DNA.
- Facial recognition scanners in airports, hotels, banks, train stations, subways, factories, apartment complexes, and public toilets.
- Physical security checkpoints that include searching cell phones for unauthorized content.
- Wi-Fi "sniffers" to gather data from nearby phones and computers.
- Police software that tracks individuals’ movements, car and cell phone use, gas station and electricity use, and package delivery.
- A national "social credit system" consisting of a series of different databases, scores, and blacklists to enhance social and political control over Chinese citizens.
Persecuting Their Own Citizens
The culmination of China’s authoritarian surveillance state is the abuse of its own citizens through social credit scores.
What is pitched as a program to promote "trustworthiness" quickly spiraled into a sprawling network that combines government and commercial data to reward compliance and punish perceived noncompliance. The system allows the CCP to maintain control without having to intervene directly.
In some cities, residents begin with a baseline score that can increase through actions like paying bills on time or volunteering, but decline for offenses ranging from traffic violations to protesting—or even speaking out against government narratives online. This structure allows the CCP to convey the illusion of freedom while maintaining strict behavioral control.
In December, the world witnessed a high-profile instance of the CCP silencing dissent after the party sentenced pro-democracy campaigner and media tycoon Jimmy Lai—alleging he colluded with foreign forces. He was first arrested in 2020.
"The Chinese government abused Jimmy Lai with the aim of silencing all those who dare to criticize the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Lai is a public example of the CCP’s ability to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Citizens are technically free to act as they please, but their social credit scores serve as a constant reminder that deviation from the Party’s expectations can carry serious consequences.
Individuals deemed "untrustworthy" can be banned from travel, blocked from banking, or restricted from engaging in public events. Businesses that fail to comply can be shut out of government procurement opportunities and children can be barred from education. In some instances, citizens are whisked away to reeducation camps, where they are often subjected to forced labor.
The combination of surveillance and AI has allowed the CCP to control its citizens and numerous groups it deems "untrustworthy" without getting its hands dirty. China’s authoritarian surveillance state forces individuals to fall in line, or they can become second-class citizens overnight—often at the whim of an AI program trained by the state.
China’s Tech-Driven Religious Persecution
In China today, religious persecution is no longer limited to arrests and church demolitions—it’s pushed by the hidden hand of technology.
The CCP authorities use cameras and facial recognition systems to identify and track which of their citizens are Christians. The vast network of cameras allows the state to monitor religious activity and flag "unauthorized" believers for investigation.
Watchdogs have reported that these surveillance measures are increasingly used to harass and detain believers—especially those who host church services in their houses as a means to escape surveillance. Additionally, China routinely charges pastors and church leaders with vague offenses such as "illegal use of information networks" for teaching or preaching online—effectively criminalizing basic religious expression.
This is not accidental. The CCP views Christianity as a competing moral authority, one that places loyalty to God above loyalty to the state. Technology allows the regime to suppress that threat quietly and efficiently.
China has long waged war on Christians, but the state also places a boot on Uyghur Muslims. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, horrendous human rights violations have left Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities completely crushed by the state.
Cameras with facial recognition capabilities monitor streets, checkpoints, and public spaces—scanning faces and feeding data into massive databases that assign "suspicion scores." One system, the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), aggregates personal data from cameras, mobile devices, and government records to identify people deemed potentially "threatening."
Individuals flagged by IJOP can be pulled into so-called "political education" camps where they are detained without transparent legal process, and in many cases subjected to indoctrination, forced labor, and other abuses.
According to Human Rights Watch, between 1 and 3 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are believed to have been held in these camps under Beijing’s "Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism."
A Warning to Americans
Big Tech companies collect enormous troves of personal information—location histories, communications, online interactions—and feed that information into ever more powerful AI systems.
Though Big Tech doesn't openly use these systems for harm, the potential remains. These systems already determine what we see online, whom we hear from, and how information spreads. Without strong protections, private data becomes indistinguishable from a tool used for state surveillance and control.
Recent polls show Americans are increasingly aware of the potential for AI to be misused in the United States—and very soon, regulatory action will need to be taken. The U.S. government so far has taken a largely laissez-faire approach to digital governance, deferring regulation to tech companies. This has empowered said companies to collect massive amounts of personal data.
At present, Congress has not passed a comprehensive federal data privacy law, leaving massive gaps in regulation and allowing access to user information to vary widely. It is imperative that the United States create a framework for surveillance, technology, and AI that places the privacy and freedom of the American citizen at the forefront of all concerns.
We are already building the same framework the CCP uses to retain control while squashing dissent. If we do not play our cards right, it is disturbingly likely our government could do the same—all while claiming it is for public safety.
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