China is always used as the primary example of a surveillance state, people constantly talk about how dystopian it is and how everything you do in public or online is tracked. I have always been skeptical about these claims and know how hypocritical they are because of the amount of surveillance that happens in the west but I want to know if China is really that bad in regards to privacy.
I'm guessing most advanced countries have advanced surveillance techniques and they are 100% using them to check on their people. 'Surveillance' is also such a container term. Everything from national security to counterterrorism to spying on dissidents to just collecting data can be seen as surveillance. But China bad because it is developing a system on their own outside of the US sphere of influence, I guess. The former head of the Dutch Secret Service has now become Dutch Prime Minister but you don't see the media losing their shit over it. Meanwhile, imagine a person like that becoming the head of state in China.
My Chinese friends always tell me the security in China can be pretty intense, especially going in and out of the country. But they never felt threatened or anything. Anecdotal for sure, but sometimes it seems people forget you can actually talk to Chinese people about their experiences.