Chinese cities rolled out dense networks of CCTV with facial recognition, integrated command platforms and "city brain" systems that fuse traffic, policing and municipal data. Programmes such as Skynet and Sharp Eyes extended camera coverage, while platforms pioneered in cities like Hangzhou managed traffic and services through real-time analytics. The same infrastructure serves both efficient urban management and intensive social control. It has become a distinctive, and exported, model of the data-governed city.
China is the leading laboratory of the surveillance-integrated smart city, fusing urban management with population control at unprecedented scale.
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