China launches 5G base stations in Xinjiang, experts say it will boost surveillance threat

Beijing's investment in Xinjiang is part of Beijing's 2019 expansion of 5G technology for broadband cellular networks, to fully digitise the country's economy and society.

Image Credit: File Photo: Representational purpose only

New Delhi: According to a US government-funded news service, China recently launched thousands of 5G base stations throughout its Xinjiang region, raising concerns that the technology will be used for greater digital surveillance of Uyghurs rather than the state's use of economic development. Last month, China's Information Technology Ministry announced that the number of 5G base stations in use across the country had surpassed 1.96 million. "The high-quality industrial internet network covers over 300 cities in China, accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional Chinese enterprises," state media outlet Xinhua quoted ministry official Wang Peng as saying. Beijing's build-out in Xinjiang is part of the 2019 expansion of 5G technology for broadband cellular networks, intending to fully digitise its economy and society.

Xinjiang has the most land area of any Chinese province or autonomous region, with 642,800 square kilometres, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA). "The 5G network rollout across the entire region will augment an existing pervasive digitized system that monitors the movement of residents through surveillance drones, facial recognition cameras, and mobile phone scans as part of China`s efforts to control the predominantly Muslim population," According to experts cited by RFA. "It's an interesting development," said Josh Chin, a Wall Street Journal journalist.

I imagine it will only increase the pervasiveness and efficiency of surveillance. "The rollout of 5G base stations across the vast, sparsely populated region is "overkill,"  according to a U.S. journalist and China analyst, Geoffrey Cain. "It`s very extreme, and it also strikes me as very suspicious," he told RFA. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in her long-awaited report in August said the Chinese government has committed abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in Xinjiang. The report by the outgoing UN rights chief contains victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, and other serious human rights violations and recommends world to take action to end the abuses. 

(With agencies’s inputs)