Chen, D., & Zhan, J. V. (2025). When Does Surveillance Trigger Resistance? Public Response to Escalating Digital Control in China.
Published in Journal of Chinese Political Science, 2025
Digital technologies have revolutionized authoritarian states’ capacity for social control through mass surveillance. However, how citizens perceive and react to escalating digital control remains understudied. This research proposes a risk-benefit analytical framework to explain how awareness of state control intentions shapes public reactions to digital surveillance in conjunction with surveillance intrusiveness. Using two independent survey experiments with over 2,000 respondents, we examine the public acceptance of four digital control measures with increasing intrusiveness: CCTV cameras in public areas, CCTV cameras in residential communities, smartphone location tracking, and smartphone usage monitoring. We find that awareness of the state’s mass monitoring and targeted repression intentions significantly decreases public support, especially for more intrusive measures. Our findings suggest that while digital surveillance innovations expand authoritarian states’ control capabilities, technological overreach may backfire by evoking public resistance.