小 thread: Yesterday, a police bureau in Inner Mongolia released over 90 hi-def wanted photos of people gathering to protest : https://archive.is/cUlbM 
“solemnly urge the following personnel to surrender.”

Protests in China (which administers Inner Mongolia) are rare because surveillance is total, the crackdown is swift, and participation can be life-altering. These wanted pics linked by rights group SMHRIC to this protest: https://twitter.com/catecadell/status/1301060701864116224

The images are clear, some look like headshots. Why such great pictures? A very good surveillance system, made by #Hikvision . This 视侦通 software is commonly purchased as part of packages by Chinese police.

The schools in this area as well as the local police have bought millions of yuan worth of surveillance equipment in recent years through public procurement, which is a very normal occurrence in any city district.

So what will happen to these people? The notice accuses them of 寻衅滋事 (picking quarrels), a catch-all crime that’s become a powerful tool for prosecuting online & offline dissent in recent years. “Creating a disturbance” is… vague.

In late 2013, ‘picking quarrels’ cases expanded rapidly, the same time it expanded to cover crimes in cyberspace, which - as Chinese authorities frequently remind us - is a public space.

It carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Inner Mongolia is just a small case study of pretty typical Chinese surveillance. But given what’s going on with lawful protest in other corners of this planet, it’s a timely reminder of just how important Rule of Law is in states that choose to use hi-tech surveillance tools.