I am skeptical- but could see it. Lived in China for half a decade and most of what you see is a facade. There are absolutely millions of cameras covering every inch of public space- but the question is if they work/if the tech is actually there yet.

I was robbed in 2018. Police laughed and shrugged off my story until realizing that CCTV captured the ENTIRE interaction from the gang first making contact with me up until taking my money and kicking me to the curb.

They had detailed images of the perpetrators faces. Absolutely nothing came out of the investigation. I see a few possible scenarios:

1. Police were paid off and working with this organized crime syndicate

2. The surveillance tech China brags about absolutely sucks (though it certainly could have improved after 6 years)

3. Police don’t care about helping foreigners.

Either way… privacy is going to be all but dead everywhere on earth.