Last Word
Every move you make, they’ll be watching you
On my last visit to the People’s Republic of China, I was dodging phlegm; now it’s avoiding surveillance cameras, police and drones
29 January 2023 - 00:00
Before lockdown I visited Shanghai. It was a surreal trip. What stayed with me was the scale of the place. It is unfathomable and unnerving. There’s a sci-fi antiseptic quality that prevails in this dystopian megalopolis that’s sprung up in just over 20 years and crushed the vestiges of the old city into a few square kilometres of pastiche remnants of “old Shanghai”. More disturbing is the sense that you are under surveillance at all times — the streets, the promenade, the whole shebang is heavily monitored via cameras and drones and cops on every street...
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