The Data Age

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Digital Covid-19 health codes， facial recognition payment options， autonomous vehicles on the streets， AI-powered irrigation systems， farms with 5G networks—from “smart cities” to “future villages，” the digital revolution in China is very much underway. But big data brings with it big problems. Private companies harvest mountains of data on citizens without mature legal or technical guidelines for protecting it， health codes appear to have been manipulated by local officials， rural areas have pumped more money into public surveillance software than technology to improve grain yields， while “smart cities” laud over high-tech gimmicks that fail to solve practical problems like inadequate public transport. A small number of people have even had enough， ditching smartphones and embracing a life offline.

It may be too late to turn back the clock on the digitization of Chinese society， but equally the efficient digital utopia promoted by giant tech firms and grand government plans seems a long way off. Whether embrace or reject new digital technologies， Chinese citizens face a swath of uncertainties navigating a big data future.

從“智慧城市”到“數(shù)字鄉(xiāng)村”，中國(guó)數(shù)字化浪潮如火如荼。（剩余40123字）