![]() ![]() Distributed Development, Unified GoalsĬOVID-19 data is spread out over multiple platforms and accessed in multiple ways. QR codes also prevail in other areas, such as a code designated to each individual for daily PCR tests in Shanghai (核酸码) and codes for people to scan to gain entrance to important venues (场所码). Records of vaccination and PCR tests can be checked on the apps as well, with data provided by the National Health Commission. Recently, the location tracking system has expanded, adding a function for checking whether you have boarded public transportation with potentially exposed or diagnosed patients. ![]() The apps also track travel history and embed information in an "itinerary code" (行程码), in which location history is tracked through mobile phone connections to local base stations of China's big three telecom companies. In some localities such as Beijing, facial recognition is required in order to register. To acquire a health code, users need to enter their travel history for the past 14 days. A green health code is required in order to enter most establishments and public places such as airports, shopping malls, and hospitals. Despite the variations, all health codes contain three modes: green, yellow, and red, generally signaling healthy, potential exposure to the virus, and COVID-positive, respectively. By the end of 2020, the government urged localities to recognize health codes from other regions while allowing localities to keep their own. Localities also developed their own health codes, introducing different names and design features. The development of the "health code" (健康码) started in early 2020 and was led by Tencent. There are three main types of COVID-related functions: health codes, travel or location history, and vaccination and testing. These functions were already prevalent before the pandemic under the label of “city services” 城市服务, but the COVID-related functions and lockdown policies accelerated people’s attachment to these apps, which at this point are indispensable for everyday life in China. On either app, users are able to pay their electricity fees and phone bills, make appointments at hospitals, and buy train tickets. Requiring users to register with their real names and national ID numbers, the two apps share the ability to access public services. The Alibaba-linked Alipay, mainly a digital wallet, also has gradually gained additional functions over the years. WeChat offers messaging, social feeds, a digital wallet, gaming, and hundreds of other services. Health codes and other pandemic apps are accessed through multiple channels, but mainly through two widely-used apps: Tencent's WeChat and Ant Group's Alipay. Here are some basics on how they work: What functions do they serve? However they are used or abused, the health apps are a constant new presence in Chinese daily life. Last month, however, authorities in Henan province reportedly manipulated a health app system to immobilize potential protesters who feared teetering banks could lose their savings more than a thousand people's health codes turned red, apparently to keep them off the streets. ![]() In early 2020, Chinese cyberspace authorities had already emphasized that digital responses to the nascent pandemic should not use personal information for other purposes. These apps and the data that feed them are designed to be a powerful tool to stymie transmission of the virus, limiting people's movements if health, location, or other indicators determined by authorities suggest they may pose a risk. Residents of most big cities are now accustomed to registering their personal information or showing digital badges of their health status and travel history before entering public buildings. Since shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese citizens in the course of everyday life have routinely used mobile apps tied to their health records to produce QR codes that act as a passport-for movement around town or between localities.
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