Governing with health code: Standardising China's data network systems during COVID‐19

Abstract

Noting the infrastructural turn in platform studies, the article conceives China's health code system, Jian Kang Ma (JKM), deployed to manage the COVID‐19 crisis as a new social infrastructure that manifests the symbolic and material power of the Party State. Using the platform walkthrough method and documentary inquiry, we unpack the structures of platform governance and identify actors of the power to appreciate the socio‐political dynamics of platform algorithms. JKM's structural power is not monolithic in the name of the Party State but supports a process of structuration that operates across multiple actors, administrative bodies and, governing layers. JKM has centralised data systems through the building of a nationwide algorithmic standard of COVID‐19 governance. JKM typified the political dynamics of deterritorialisation, a reference to the state's governing mindset of eradicating local variants of policy implementation and governing autonomy in China. The removal of local power in pandemic administration has led to the production of a unified national subject. Such a comprehensive approach begs for greater nuance and sophisticated knowledge about those indigenous logics that platforms and algorithms operate and are embedded in, thus contributing to de‐westernising platform studies.

Living in the era of codes: a reflection on China’s health code system

“…Research on China’s health code has mostly drawn on surveillance studies scholarship and discussed its role as a state-sponsored surveillance infrastructure in consolidating the state’s centralising power in crisis management and normalising the expansive state surveillance (Cong 2021 ; Yang et al 2021 ; Sun and Wang 2022 ). It has examined the role of digital platforms in conducting health surveillance and mediating state–citizen relations (Liang 2020 ).…”

“…Although recognising the de-centralised, non-monolithic, and layered nature of the health code system, many scholars focus on the subjectification process of technological systems on society. From the social credit system to the health code system, technological systems and objects are regarded as bio-governance technologies to monitor, judge and regulate datafied bodies (Liang et al 2018 ; Wu 2021a , b ; Sun and Wang 2022 ); it is said to de-humanise governance and render citizens to a state of permanent visibility through social quantification (Liang 2020 ; Liang and Chen 2022 ). However, a closer examination of technological features and a review of literature suggest that a de-westernising approach to studying the health code system can shed new light on not only its technological affordances but also its embeddedness in the Chinese culture of social governance.…”

“…Several scholars have examined China’s health code via walkthrough analysis. This includes Sun and Wang ( 2022 )’s detailed analysis of the Zhejiang health code, Meng et al ( 2021 )’s brief analysis of the Shenzhen/Guangzhou and Hangzhou/Zhejiang health codes, and Yang et al (2021)’s quick walkthrough of the national health code on WeChat and Alipay. They have illustrated the step-by-step features of the mini apps, from registration and generating health report to their technological affordances and networked data management.…”

Privacy at risk? Understanding the perceived privacy protection of health code apps in China

“…Meng et al (2021) find that HCAs strengthen social governance to control flow of people between different areas, yielding regulated physical mobilities that discriminate those socially and technologically dependent on others. Sun and Wang (2022) portray HCAs as a social infrastructure that repurposes the existing data systems for deterring users from violating pandemic control rules and modifying individual behaviors in accordance with a desirable mode of citizenry. As shown in the case of SCS (Kostka, 2019; Kostka and Antoine, 2020), how users perceive and respond to the privacy dimension of digital surveillance instruments in China are contingent on their individual characteristics, beliefs, and user experience that is tied to the instruments’ functionality.…”

Decoding China’s COVID-19 Health Code Apps: The Legal Challenges

“…Since both WeChat and Alipay already possess a wealth of personal data, being embedded in these apps makes the health code apps more direct and intrusive. Furthermore, the Chinese tech businesses have less bargaining power with the government over the control of data flow compared to their Western counterparts [ 13 ].…”