Building a national system of social governance (guojia zhili tixi), which is the long-running governance dream of Xi Jinping, has triggered the creation of China's 'smart state' using the tools of new information technologies to advance governance capacity (zhili nengli). These systems were already deployed nationally when the COVID-19 pandemic hit China, but were connected at a lesser capacity, targeting specific domains of security, industry or government administration. In response to the crisis, multiple technologies have been merged, exceeding the scope of their originally intended functions. This is known as function creep, when surveillant technologies remain functional past achievement of their intended purpose, or surveillant assemblages, where multiple surveillant technologies are combined. As more countries turn to digitalisation to increase public security and intensify social and market governance, the expansion of surveillant functions in China and their now-palpable effects on people's lives raises new and pressing questions for scholars and decision-makers alike.

ObjectivesThe human specific commercially available STRs system are often not tested in non human primates for their cross applicability. The aim of this study is to test Cross-species validation of two commercially available human specific STR kits i.e. SureID® 21G and SureID® 23comp (Health Gene Technologies) for their positive application in Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes).ResultIn SureID® 21G, 19 loci amplified and while 20 loci amplified in SureID® 23comp. All the amplified loci in both STR kits were found polymorphic and the locus Amelogenin showed differential banding patterns between male and female revealing their known gender. The present study validates the applicability of these human specific STR kits in Chimpanzee that can be used in forensics analysis, paternity testing and population genetic studies.

Xi Jinping’s ascent to power as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was accompanied by changes in national governance strategies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that have progressively incorporated the use of big data. Shortly after, in May 2015, the Chinese State Council released a set of policy reforms under the abbreviation fang guan fu 放管服 (decentralise, manage, and service). These reforms promoted big data led (1) market regulation, (2) supervision and management systems, and (3) service provision processes. By applying a case study analytical approach, this paper explores how advancements in big data contributed to these reforms aimed at centralising information in China. Combining the joint knowledge of surveillance and China studies scholarship, this paper offers evidence of big data surveillance streamlining China’s fragmented intergovernmental policy system. We build on David Murakami Wood’s 2017 outline of a political theory of surveillance and argue that decentralisation of data collection points and centralisation of both bureaucratic and public access to information are key components of the Party-state’s regulatory governance strategy incorporating the use of big data and comprehensive surveillance. Our findings have implications for future analyses of the relationship between political organisations and surveillance within other nation-state contexts, particularly in situations where Chinese technologies and systems are being adopted and adapted.

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Allele frequency data for 22 short tandem repeat loci; D18S1364,