China utilising high-tech, robots, drones, sensors...to monitor its citizens in Shanghai and Jilin lock-down

 Robot dogs, drones & sensors in China Shanghai lockdown

Shanghai went into strict lockdown given the spike of COVID cases in March. As one of the most surveilled cities in the earth, the Chinese officials utilised the state-of-the-art technologies to police or even monitor the citizens with some examples shown below.

1. Robot Dogs

Chinese officials sent robot dogs attached with a huge speaker to repeatedly bark lockdown commands to SH residents - "please measure your temperature, to sanitize, to wear mask, to wash hands...". The robot dog was controlled by Yushuo Wang, a worker in the Chinese drone building company DJI. As a volunteer for his community's committee of residents, he controlled the dog to make 3 patrols per day to remind the residents of COVID prevention measures. 

2. Drones:

Chinese officials sent drones to broadcast announcements. In early April drones flied above SH apartments to tell residents to "control their souls' desire for freedom, do not open the window to sing" and reminded them of the lockdown rules and regulations.

Apart from communicating with residents on COVID rules, officials also utilized drones to monitor citizens who walked out of the buildings during the lockdown.

 3. Life detector

Chinese officials deployed radar life detector to detect trucks and other vehicles to make sure they do not send citizens out of the country. 

Shanghai has been deploying these technologies to monitor and police citizens since the sudden reemergence of COVID cases in late March. On April 7, China reported more than 23 thousands new cases nationwide with one thousand of which had no symptoms. That encompassed around 20,000 cases in SH. Before the lockdown, the official claimed the food and medical supplies would be more than abundant. However the reality goes into the opposite way. Numerous citizens complaint about the food shortage during the city shutdown. They tried to voice out their grievances and frustration to the government officials. When Li Qiang, the SH Communist Party Chief, visited residents in early April, videos on social media showed a resident shouting from their windows about the lack of food.

When will Shanghai, and other Chinese provinces achieve Chinese government's Zero-COVID target?