The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China

by Minxin Pei

Countering recent hype around technology, a leading expert argues that the endurance of dictatorship in China owes less to facial recognition AI and GPS tracking than to the human resources of the Leninist surveillance state.

For decades China watchers argued that economic liberalization and increasing prosperity would bring democracy to the world’s most populous country. Instead, the Communist Party’s grip on power has only strengthened. Why? The answer, Minxin Pei argues, lies in the effectiveness of the Chinese surveillance state. And the source of that effectiveness is not just advanced technology like facial recognition AI and mobile phone tracking. These are important, but what matters more is China’s vast, labor-intensive infrastructure of domestic spying.

Central government data on Chinese surveillance is confidential, so Pei turned to local reports, police gazettes, leaked documents, and interviews with exiled dissidents to provide a detailed look at the evolution, organization, and tactics of the surveillance state. Following the 1989 Tiananmen uprising, the Chinese Communist Party invested immense resources in a coercive apparatus operated by a relatively small number of secret police officers capable of mobilizing millions of citizen informants to spy on those suspected of disloyalty. The CCP’s Leninist bureaucratic structure―whereby officials and party activists penetrate every sector of society and the economy, from universities and village committees to delivery companies, telecommunication firms, and Tibetan monasteries―ensures that Beijing’s eyes and ears are truly everywhere.

While today’s system is far more robust than that of years past, it is modeled after mass surveillance implemented under Mao Zedong and Chinese emperors centuries ago. Rigorously empirical and rich in historical insight, The Sentinel State is a singular contribution to our knowledge about coercion in the Chinese state and, more generally, the survival strategies of authoritarian regimes.

Genres: China, Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science, Espionage, History, Technology

336 pages, Hardcover

Published February 13, 2024

About the author

Minxin Pei is a political scientist and the director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Prior to this position, he was a senior associate in the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and was a professor at Princeton University from 1992 to 1998. He holds a B.A. in English from Shanghai International Studies University, an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Pittsburgh and an M.A. and PhD in political science from Harvard University. He is an expert in Sino-American relations.

Reviews

[Stephen Peter Rosen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive research

A good integration of history of imperial, human informant based Chinese mass surveillance with what we know about current PRC digital surveillance.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

An academic examination with some startling facts. Considering China's population, its security & surveillance apparatus is efficient. And the apparent conclusion of why it is so effective is not just that it is technologically and organizationally efficient, but because economic growth and the benefits of this have come to most Chinese people. Which means one can get along with the surveillance state so long as you get some material benefits. And Pei's counterbalancing theory is that if those same economic benefits wane, then so too does the surveillance state's power as a critical mass of discontent takes over, like in other former dictatorships. His other key observation is that the Leninist underpinnings (i.e., Communist Party membership and central committee system) of contemporary Chinese society makes this particular pervasive and nearly all-encompassing surveillance dictatorship unique to China, and not replicable elsewhere. A fascinating read, if at time dry because it is a study of an administrative system, an inherently boring - but anything but benign - system.

[YJun · Rating 5 out of 5]

other reviews have commented that this book is dry given its academic nature, but that's like saying that water is wet. books like these are usually not designed for entertainment and that's fine. not all books are designed for easy reading.

with that disclaimer aside, if you delight in reading about chinese bureaucracies -- especially in the context of spying -- this is a delightfully thorough read that breaks down the importance of mass mobilisation and leninist bottom-up organisation in supporting a massive surveillance system that approximately keeps tabs on 0.5-0.9% of the population at one time (pei's estimates). writing this sort of book is infinitely challenging given the lack of primary and secondary sources (and for obvious reasons), and i really enjoyed reading about pei's estimates when trying to deduce the scale of the mass surveillance system, and the human and monetary costs incurred. i've been planning to read this book for the longest time and it did not disappoint. highly recommended.

[Hebdomeros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although media attention in recent years has focused on the hightech features of China’s surveillance state, our study shows that the adoption of high-definition video, facial recognition tools, and online
censorship came relatively late: these technologies strengthened the capabilities of an already-formidable surveillance state. In reality, the keys to the Chinese surveillance state’s far-reaching effectiveness are not technologically intensive. They are labor and organization intensive. Crucial in enabling the organizational foundations of the surveillance state are China’s Leninist institutions.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry/repetitive at times — a lot of references to individual yearbooks that substantiate a claim but without quoting from the yearbook, or the yearbook itself doesn’t offer much more detail, so it just feels a bit gratuitous — but its overall argument and explanation of the human powered, crucial element of China’s surveillance state is very compelling and under covered

[Wen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very impressed by the level of details the author was able to find in public documents. For the general public the book may appear "too dry" as the author spends a lot of time discussing data extracted from different sources, how to interpret Chinese information, etc. Overall, a very informative read.

[Samuel Gustafsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good research and comprehensive explanation.

Only negative is - the book has a map of China with Taiwan included, why?