Henan Province Rolls Out a 3,000‑Camera “Journalist Tracker”
Picture this: a sprawling web of 3,000 facial‑recognition cameras cut across Henan, each one buzzing to identify a suspected journalist, an international student, or any other “suspicious” soul that steps onto province borders. It’s like the province’s own personal paparazzi, but for scrolling censorship.
A Tender That Read Like a Spy Thriller
On July 29, Henan’s procurement website surprised reporters with a tender that didn’t just ask for surveillance gear— it called for a full‑scale tracking system. The brief was plain: build a network that can spit out detailed dossiers on people deemed “of interest” as they move through the province, pulling data from all national and regional databases.
- 3,000 cameras “all eyes” around Henan
- Integration with major surveillance databases
- Targets: journalists, foreign students, and the “usual suspects”
Who Got the Job?
Fast forward to Sept. 17— a 5 million‑yuan deal (about S$1.07 million) was signed with Neusoft, a tech company based in Shenyang. The contract demanded a working system within two months, but officials have yet to confirm whether it’s up and running.
Why This Matters
China has been known for its massive surveillance net, but the Henan case is the first time a provincial authority has specifically laid out a plan to watch journalists. IPVM’s Director, Donald Maye, called it a “game‑changer” for how the state might quietly clamp down on media coverage.
Donald Maye (IPVM): “It’s the first known instance of China crafting a custom tech solution to expedite state suppression of journalists.”
In fact, a Scouring the rest of the country turned up no similar documents. The Henan story might be the tip of a huge iceberg, but at present, nothing else in China publicly admits tracking foreigners or press workers in this way.
Who’s Saying Anything?
- Henan provincial government? No comment.
- Local police? Silence.
- Ministry of Public Security & Foreign Ministry? N/A.
- Neusoft? “We just build the gadgets.” (Shenyang-based company stayed tight‑lipped.)
So, as the cameras whir and the cameras spice up the cityscape, everyone’s left wondering how many journalists will have to swap their hot coffee for a cooler under this new digital watchdog. Keep your eyes peeled— it might just be a new trend in the media world.
“Tailed and controlled”
Henan’s Top‑Secret Surveillance Playbook
Picture this: a near‑200‑page dossier that reads like a spy thriller, drafted by the Henan Public Security Department. Released this month, the doc has gone missing from the internet—censored like an undercover mission. Inside, it outlines a plan to keep an eye on journalists, international students, and a specific group of women from neighboring countries who are considered illegal residents.
Key Threats According to the Tender
- Journalists – split into three risk tiers: Red (high danger), Yellow (medium), Green (low).
- International students – flagged for increased scrutiny.
- Women from neighboring countries – labelled as “illegal residents,” they’re on the monitoring radar.
How the System Works
The tender insists on a state‑of‑the‑art camera network capable of creating facial profiles even when a person’s face is partially covered by a mask or glasses. Anyone — from a journalist staying at a hotel to a tourist buying a train ticket or crossing a provincial border — can trigger an alert by raising a single flag in the system.
Because Henan is the third‑largest province in China with a population of 99 million, the system isn’t going to hibernate. The tender states:
“Suspicious persons must be tailed and controlled, dynamic research analyses and risk assessments made, and the journalists dealt with according to their category.”
The Execution Force
- Over 2,000 officials and policemen will be on duty.
- All police jurisdictions across Henan will be linked to the platform for quick response.
- When a warning is triggered, the entire network goes into action.
Early Warning Systems for Other Groups
The document also covers other “suspect” groups, detailing a layered early warning architecture. Think of it as an alarm system that blares at different levels depending on how threatening the sighting is.
Putting it all together, Henan’s latest tender reads like a high‑stakes surveillance opera. The drama is in the details — how the authorities will catalogue every traveler’s face, and how the system will decide who’s dangerous or merely curious. The country’s director of security has likely got more spreadsheets than a grocery list.
Media control
China Tightens Media Grip Under Xi: What the Reports Say
Since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, watchdogs claim the Communist Party has been tightening its hold on the press. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) has been sounding the alarm night and day.
The 2020 Winter Report
Back in February, the FCCC released a scathing assessment claiming that Beijing used a cocktail of pandemic‑era lockdowns, subtle intimidation and visa snags to keep foreign reporters out of the country. The group mined responses from a yearly survey of journalists and spoke to bureau chiefs in the field.
China’s foreign ministry blasted the document as “baseless,” insisting that the government always welcomes international reporters “according to the law.” A spokesman added, “What we oppose is ideological bias against China and fake news in the name of press freedom.”
Henan’s “Foreign‑Journalist‑First” Formula
A recent document from Henan’s provincial government added a stir‑ring twist: it specifically names “foreign journalists” in a few paragraphs. A short summary posted on the province’s procurement platform last October described a new system that would be “centred on foreigners” to “protect national sovereignty, security and interests.”
This contract, tendered on July 29, was floated just days after a wave of nationalist backlash hit foreign reporters—BBC, LA Times, AFP, and others—who were covering the devastating floods in Henan. China’s heavily censored social media platform, Weibo, became a hub for the harassment.
What the FCCC Said
The FCCC expressed “very concern” over the online and offline harassment of journalists who were simply doing their jobs. One Weibo account, for example, rallied its 1.6 million followers to hunt down a foreign reporter covering the floods.
The System’s Features
According to the tender, the proposed system would track international students’ movements using mobile phone GPS and travel bookings, especially around pivotal dates such as the national day or the annual parliamentary session. On those “sensitive dates,” it would initiate a wartime‑style early warning mechanism.
Bottom Line
From tailored surveillance to heightened censorship during crises, the evidence points to an increasingly tight control over foreign media coverage in China. The press freedom community isn’t shy about calling out the tactics, but Beijing clearly stands firm on its stance. Only time will tell whether the narrative will shift—or if more wolves will be sent after the wolves’ ears.
