Wuhan, China: Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, life in China has been governed by a green symbol on a smartphone screen.
Green is the "health code" that states that the user is symptom-free and is required to board the metro, check into a hotel or enter the central city of Wuhan with only 11 million people, where the epidemic began in December.
This system has been made possible by the embracing of the almost universal smartphones of the Chinese people and the "Big Data" of the ruling Communist Party to monitor and control society.
While walking to a Wuhan metro station on Wednesday, Wu Shenghong, a manager for a clothing manufacturer, used his smartphone to scan a barcode on a poster, triggering his health code app. A green code and its ID number appeared on the screen. A guard wearing a mask and wearing goggles waved at him.
If the code was reddened, it would tell the guard that Wu was confirmed to be infected or had fever or other symptoms and was awaiting diagnosis. The Yellow Code would mean he has contact with an infected person, but the two-week quarantine period has not been completed, meaning he must be in a hospital or present at home.
Wu, who was on his way to see retailers after returning to work this week, said the system has helped reassure him after leaving Wuhan's streets empty after a two-month shutdown.
"People with red or yellow color codes definitely don't run out," said 51-year-old Wu.
The intensive use of the Health Code is part of efforts by authorities to revive China's economy while preventing a spike in infection as a stream in factories, offices and shops.
Most access to Central China's manufacturing center Wuhan to fight coronovirus was suspended on 23 January. The lockout spread to cities around Hubei province and then people across the country were ordered to stay indoors under the most intensive anti-disease control ever imposed. Final travel control over Wuhan will be lifted on 8 April.
Other governments should consider adopting Chinese-style "digital contact tracing", researchers at Oxford University recommended in a report published in the journal Science on Tuesday. It is spreading much faster than traditional methods for tracking virus infections "but can be controlled if this process is expedited." , Became more efficient and larger scale, ”the researchers wrote.
Once boarding the metro, Wu and other passengers used their smartphones to scan a code they needed to find after officers entered the number of rides in the case of a car.
One attendant read a banner saying "Please wear a mask during your trip. Don't get close to the others. Scan the code before you get off the train." The seat was marked with dots, with passengers staring at each other considerably. Had to sit to stay away.
Visitors to shopping malls, office buildings and other public places in Wuhan have to go through a similar routine. They show their health codes and guards in masks and check fever before allowing them in gloves.
The health code combines an ever-growing matrix of high-tech monitoring that tracks China's citizens in public, online and at work: millions of video camera blankets on streets from major cities to small towns. Sensors monitor activity on the Internet and social media. State-owned telecommunications carriers can find out where mobile phone customers go.
A vast, computerized system known as social credit aims to follow official rules. Many people with disabilities can be barred from purchasing a plane ticket to committing a crime, getting a government job, or leaving the country, from committing crimes to fellowship and picking up litter.
A statement from the city government of Tianjin, a port city of 16 million people adjoining Beijing, said the health codes were temporary but gave no indication when the use would cease.
The codes have been released through Internet giant Tencent Tencent's popular WeChat messaging service and the world's largest e-commerce company Alibaba Group's Alipay electronic payment service.
According to the newspaper Beijing Youth Daily and other outlets, some 900 million people use the system on WeChat. There is no overall report for Alipay.
Obtaining a health code is simple: users fill out an electronic form with their identification details, address and whether they have a cough or fever. The system does not include any steps to confirm whether the user is healthy.
Authorities have threatened that violators will be "dealt with severely", although detailed penalties remain to be announced.
The regulations say that those who try to travel with red health codes will be marked in the social credit system.
A statement by the government of Northeast's Heilongjiang Province states that "fraud, concealment and other behavior" carry penalties that will greatly impact their future lives and work.
Green is the "health code" that states that the user is symptom-free and is required to board the metro, check into a hotel or enter the central city of Wuhan with only 11 million people, where the epidemic began in December.
This system has been made possible by the embracing of the almost universal smartphones of the Chinese people and the "Big Data" of the ruling Communist Party to monitor and control society.
While walking to a Wuhan metro station on Wednesday, Wu Shenghong, a manager for a clothing manufacturer, used his smartphone to scan a barcode on a poster, triggering his health code app. A green code and its ID number appeared on the screen. A guard wearing a mask and wearing goggles waved at him.
If the code was reddened, it would tell the guard that Wu was confirmed to be infected or had fever or other symptoms and was awaiting diagnosis. The Yellow Code would mean he has contact with an infected person, but the two-week quarantine period has not been completed, meaning he must be in a hospital or present at home.
Wu, who was on his way to see retailers after returning to work this week, said the system has helped reassure him after leaving Wuhan's streets empty after a two-month shutdown.
"People with red or yellow color codes definitely don't run out," said 51-year-old Wu.
The intensive use of the Health Code is part of efforts by authorities to revive China's economy while preventing a spike in infection as a stream in factories, offices and shops.
Most access to Central China's manufacturing center Wuhan to fight coronovirus was suspended on 23 January. The lockout spread to cities around Hubei province and then people across the country were ordered to stay indoors under the most intensive anti-disease control ever imposed. Final travel control over Wuhan will be lifted on 8 April.
Other governments should consider adopting Chinese-style "digital contact tracing", researchers at Oxford University recommended in a report published in the journal Science on Tuesday. It is spreading much faster than traditional methods for tracking virus infections "but can be controlled if this process is expedited." , Became more efficient and larger scale, ”the researchers wrote.
Once boarding the metro, Wu and other passengers used their smartphones to scan a code they needed to find after officers entered the number of rides in the case of a car.
One attendant read a banner saying "Please wear a mask during your trip. Don't get close to the others. Scan the code before you get off the train." The seat was marked with dots, with passengers staring at each other considerably. Had to sit to stay away.
Visitors to shopping malls, office buildings and other public places in Wuhan have to go through a similar routine. They show their health codes and guards in masks and check fever before allowing them in gloves.
The health code combines an ever-growing matrix of high-tech monitoring that tracks China's citizens in public, online and at work: millions of video camera blankets on streets from major cities to small towns. Sensors monitor activity on the Internet and social media. State-owned telecommunications carriers can find out where mobile phone customers go.
A vast, computerized system known as social credit aims to follow official rules. Many people with disabilities can be barred from purchasing a plane ticket to committing a crime, getting a government job, or leaving the country, from committing crimes to fellowship and picking up litter.
A statement from the city government of Tianjin, a port city of 16 million people adjoining Beijing, said the health codes were temporary but gave no indication when the use would cease.
The codes have been released through Internet giant Tencent Tencent's popular WeChat messaging service and the world's largest e-commerce company Alibaba Group's Alipay electronic payment service.
According to the newspaper Beijing Youth Daily and other outlets, some 900 million people use the system on WeChat. There is no overall report for Alipay.
Obtaining a health code is simple: users fill out an electronic form with their identification details, address and whether they have a cough or fever. The system does not include any steps to confirm whether the user is healthy.
Authorities have threatened that violators will be "dealt with severely", although detailed penalties remain to be announced.
The regulations say that those who try to travel with red health codes will be marked in the social credit system.
A statement by the government of Northeast's Heilongjiang Province states that "fraud, concealment and other behavior" carry penalties that will greatly impact their future lives and work.
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