OPINION | China’s People’s Police Day: Exporting High-Tech Tyranny to Crush Uyghur Souls

By Ashu Maan

Each year, China marks Police Day by showcasing its latest law enforcement technologies, presenting them as tools to enhance safety, security, and public order.

But beneath this carefully curated image lies a far more troubling reality. These high-tech systems are not primarily designed to protect citizens. Instead, they are used to monitor, control, and silence anyone who dares to challenge the state's authority.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Xinjiang, home to more than 22 million Uyghur Muslims who have lived for years under an unprecedented surveillance regime. What is unfolding there bears little resemblance to the idealized notion of “keeping people safe.”

The Chinese government has effectively transformed the region into a vast surveillance state, deploying cutting-edge technologies to track, control, and systematically erase Uyghur culture and identity. The tools proudly displayed during People’s Police Day are not limited to crime prevention; they are used to intimidate entire populations, reshape identities, and dismantle cultural heritage.

Uyghurs in Xinjiang are forced into so-called “re-education camps,” facilities ostensibly created for learning but widely understood to exist for coercion and compliance. These camps are designed to strip individuals of their language, traditions, and religious beliefs.

This is not education; it is enforced conformity. Facial-recognition cameras follow Uyghurs wherever they go, monitoring their behavior and punishing even the smallest acts of perceived resistance. Simply holding onto one’s faith, speaking one’s language, or practicing cultural traditions can result in detention. AI-driven surveillance systems ensure constant oversight, instilling fear as a means of control.

Even more alarming is that these technologies are no longer confined within China’s borders. Beijing is exporting its surveillance model abroad, turning repression into a global business.

Governments around the world, particularly authoritarian regimes, are purchasing these high-tech systems, enabling them to monitor and suppress their own populations. This is not merely about domestic control within China; it is about extending that control globally. Under the banner of the “One China” narrative, a model of governance rooted in surveillance and coercion is being pushed beyond national boundaries through the sale of monitoring technologies.

The implications are deeply disturbing. Imagine living in a country where every movement is tracked, not only by your own government but potentially by a foreign one. Every interaction, conversation, and decision could be recorded and weaponized. This is no longer science fiction. It is happening now, as China expands its technological reach abroad. Nations importing these systems risk subjecting their citizens to mechanisms designed to crush dissent and eliminate resistance.

This is not a vision of global unity. While China frames its approach as fostering harmony, that narrative conceals a darker truth. This so-called unity is about control, manipulation, and ensuring no one steps out of line.

The AI tools being sold are not intended to make societies safer. They are designed to enforce obedience, whether people consent to it or not.

The world cannot afford to ignore what is happening in Xinjiang and beyond. These technologies represent the transformation of surveillance into domination, and the power to decide who is allowed freedom and who must be kept in check. Today, China is using these tools to expand its global influence, turning the promise of technological progress into a nightmare of constant monitoring and fear.

What is happening to the Uyghurs should serve as a warning to the rest of the world. If these tools of control continue to spread, societies everywhere may find themselves more watched, but no safer.

This is not only a Uyghur issue. The struggle for Uyghur rights is part of the broader fight for human rights worldwide. It is about ensuring that no one is forced to live under a government that dictates every aspect of life, erases culture, and strips away freedom and dignity.

So, as China celebrates People’s Police Day, the rest of the world must ask: What is the true cost of this so-called progress, and who is paying the price? This is not about unity. It is about control. And it is up to all of us to ensure that this global surveillance nightmare does not become the future we are forced to live in.

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About the Author

Ashu Mann is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. He was awarded the Vice Chief of the Army Staff Commendation card on Army Day 2025. He is pursuing a PhD from Amity University, Noida, in Defence and Strategic Studies. His research focuses include the India-China territorial dispute, great power rivalry, and Chinese foreign policy.