We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State

Written by:
Kai Strittmatter
Narrated by:
Matthew Waterson

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
3
Narrator
2
Release Date
September 2020
Duration
10 hours 30 minutes
Summary
Named a Notable Work of Nonfiction of 2020 by the Washington Post

As heard on NPR's Fresh Air, We Have Been Harmonized, by award-winning correspondent Kai Strittmatter, offers a groundbreaking look, based on decades of research, at how China created the most terrifying surveillance state in history. 

China’s new drive for repression is being underpinned by unpre­cedented advances in technology: facial and voice recognition, GPS tracking, supercomputer databases, intercepted cell phone conver­sations, the monitoring of app use, and millions of high-resolution security cameras make it nearly impossible for a Chinese citizen to hide anything from authorities. Commercial transactions, including food deliveries and online purchases, are fed into vast databases, along with everything from biometric information to social media activities to methods of birth control. Cameras (so advanced that they can locate a single person within a stadium crowd of 60,000) scan for faces and walking patterns to track each individual’s move­ment. In some schools, children’s facial expressions are monitored to make sure they are paying attention at the right times. In a new Social Credit System, each citizen is given a score for good behavior; for those who rate poorly, punishments include being banned from flying or taking high-speed trains, exclusion from certain jobs, and preventing their children from attending better schools. And it gets worse: advanced surveillance has led to the imprisonment of more than a million Chinese citizens in western China alone, many held in draconian “reeducation” camps.

This digital totalitarianism has been made possible not only with the help of Chinese private tech companies, but the complic­ity of Western governments and corporations eager to gain access to China’s huge market. And while governments debate trade wars and tariffs, the Chinese Communist Party and its local partners are aggressively stepping up their efforts to export their surveillance technology abroad—including to the United States.

We Have Been Harmonized is a terrifying portrait of life under unprecedented government surveillance—and a dire warning about what could happen anywhere under the pretense of national security.

“Terrifying. … A warning call.' —The Sunday Times (UK), a “Best Book of the Year so Far”
Reviews
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Ilinca S.

a terrifying but realistic view of the future. and the worst thing about it is that this affects all of us. look what happened when the corona virus made its first victims in wuhan and how WHO is to scared to call China out. this book should be mandatory reading.

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J Carlos S.

After being involved in Chinese business and having visited that country many times since 1985, this book is now one of my favorites for the depth of explanation of the core issues that are to understand today’s China.

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