Busybodies, backed by AI, are restoring the party’s visibility

IN 2018 XI JINPING visited one of Shanghai’s grandiose new structures, a ponderous, low, glass-clad building that had been used mainly as an exhibition centre. A space inside had been taken over by the district government for an entirely different purpose. On one wall a vast screen showed live feeds from street cameras. With the help of artificial intelligence, it could alert officials to problems as subtle as a builder not wearing a safety-helmet or a flat being rented by too many people. They nicknamed the system that supplied this information the “big brain”.

Mr Xi says city management must be “as fine as embroidery”. As officials put it, there must be no “blind spots”: every corner must be watched and any problem dealt with immediately—whether an illegally parked car, a missing manhole cover or a “sudden incident” (as the party calls everything from the truly dramatic to a gaggle of protesters complaining about unpaid wages). The big brain in Pudong district is pioneering a technological answer, collating data from sources ranging from the ubiquitous cameras to police patrols. Informants selected by the party supply information, too. One reason why Mr Xi is rebuilding the party at the grassroots is to use its members to keep watch.