China’s National Plan Of Surveillance To Track Cars With Mandatory RFID Chips

China's National Plan to Electronically Track Every Car, with the addition of Video Camera And Facial Recognition System,  says The Wall Street Journal 

The Chinese government is preparing a program that will help in tracking traffic congestion but it's likely to become another surveillance tool. According to the program, Radio Frequency Identification chip will be installed on vehicles which will log the information of number plate and vehicle's color. Installation of RFID will be optional this year from 1st July 2018, but it will be necessary from the start of 2019. 

  However readying this program could lead one's to concern about its privacy. Perhaps authorities could probably justify the plan as the way to improve public security and traffic congestion. Since the annual sales of vehicles in China is about 30 million  so with this massive annual sale it will also expand China's surveillance network. Their network will also include security cameras, facial recognition system and internet monitoring.

  The program is initiated by the China's Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Traffic Management . By implementing these RFID chips authorities are hoping to be able to study traffic congestion  in clogged roads and it can also help in reducing air pollution which is a major priority of Chinese government. 

  The report says that Roadside readers will receive the RFID signals from nearby auto, and they'll send the information to the Ministry of Public Security.

Roadside reader will be like a pole which will receive signals from any passer by vehicles and forward this info to the database.

  


RFID is more reliable than security cameras even in poor weather condition. It can also detect fake number plate and cars when they are entering in the areas where they are prohibited to go. However it is uncertain that how much information they are planning to store in each chip besides vehicles number plate and color but RFID won't be able to give precise location unlike GPS because it'll send data to the nearest roadside reader in the range which won't be as accurate as GPS.

  The RFID system will be added alongside with number of surveillance programs that are already in place.  China already tracks license plates with security check cameras in some regions. Facial recognition is common, whether it’s being done by smart glasses or by security camera.They also blocks many internet-dependent services like apps and websites to surveil its citizens . The government also requisite to use government approved Wifi routers. The government has also been rolling out a social credit system, where citizens are rated by their finances, criminal behavior, and other factors.