18 of the world’s 20 most monitored cities are in China, 1 camera for every 4.1 people
CCTV cameras
The urban population of China are under the heaviest CCTV surveillance in the world. Out of the 20 most surveilled cities in the world, 18 are Chinese cities, with London and Hyderabad being the only cities outside of China to make the top 20. London took third place and Hyderabad the 16th.
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According to an annual report published by the UK-based Comparitech, worldwide there are 770 million cameras in use, with 54% of them in China alone.
Comparitech is a firm that reviews technology services like VPN, anti-virus and apps.
During lockdown due to deadly covid-19 virus, localised closed-circuit television (CCTV) was used to stop people leaving their homes in China.
The founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China had one camera introduced for every 4.1 individuals in 2018, according to too the report by IHS Markit, a company based in Britain.
It estimates that China would introduce 567 million cameras by 2021, while the US would introduce 85 million.
The city of Taiyuan in China was ranked first with 4, 65,255 CCTV cameras. Home to 3,891,127 people, the security cameras to population ratio of Taiyuan was at 119.57 CCTV cameras per 1,000 people. The city had a crime index of 51.47.
China is known for its elevated levels of surveillance on its citizens and utilization of facial acknowledgement innovation to screen its population.
It's ongoing exceptionally questionable security law has started fears that authorities in Beijing will utilize reconnaissance in Hong Kong to target pro-democracy activists.
(With inputs from agencies)