Paper short abstract:

Despite having the world's arguably most high-tech system including cutting-edge AI technology, state surveillance in Xinjiang still relies heavily on human informers and personal observation. This paper explores the interaction between human and technology in surveillance and how to research it.

Paper long abstract:

Andrew had been registered at a dozen checkpoints and he had been filmed for hours by surveillance cameras during his trip through a Xinjiang torn by mass incarceration, fear and ethnic tension in summer 2019. Yet, only two weeks into his research trip in Xinjiang, only when a taxi driver reported on him at the local police station, did the Chinese secret police "invite him for tea", as the local euphemism for light interrogation has it. The taxi driver had more than his possible political fervor or the anticipation of political or economic rewards to motivate this reporting. In the car they had been discussing the securitization and excessive surveillance in Xinjiang over the last years. The driver knew very well, that the conversation was being monitored by the help of cameras and microphones inside his taxi. As in the classical panopticon, he did not know whether anyone would be paying attention. He probably reported on the conversation just in case - to rather be safe than sorry, and the recordings would have most likely not been heard by anyone had he not. Starting from this anecdote, using leaked security files from Ürümchi, travel reports, intervews and online sources, this paper explores the interaction between human and technology in surveillance in Xinjaing and how to research it.