Ariana Oliver- China's Minority Identification

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html

China has been criticized internationally for having held the Muslim ethnicity of its Western regions in detention camps similar to the ones used for the Japanese during World War II. However, new documents reveal how the government is using facial recognition technology to monitor a minority of their country, the Uighurs, Muslims, of a Turkish ancestry living mostly in the Xinjiang region. Authorities call it "minority identification" which many admit is just a euphemism. According to China, they are profiling the Uighurs for "law enforcement purposes", since the Chinese government classifies them as a "sensitive group of people". CloudWalk is one of the companies behind the technology. SenseTime, another company working on the technology said it was not aware of the profiling, while Megvii said it was creating the program to help in the well-being and safety of individual citizens. The police have put together lists in order to have the facial recognition programs help catch criminals. These include lists of people with mental illnesses, criminal records, past drug usage, or those who had petitioned for the government to change. China is able to do this since their leaders care less about moral consensus of their citizens. Ethnic profiling is commonplace in China, while in other places it would be seen as a morally wrong. The companies behind the technology are pushing to expand this technology overseas, which could put this in the hands of other countries. Experts such as Jonathan Frankle believes this technology could become an "existential threat to democracy."

This type of technology could be connected to the idea of nativism in America early on, and the pushback against foreigners entering America, but China is citing reasons of ethnic violence and terrorist attacks while America's nativism ideals were based on fears of the foreigners taking American jobs. For instance, Ellis Island and Angel Island being used to screen all incoming immigrants can be similar to how China is profiling a certain minority for fears of danger. What China is doing also is similar to the Soviet for authoritarian rule of their country. They are using data to enforce rules and regulations in ways that were previously impossible.