Author: Chairman rabbit source: tuzhuxi (id:chairman rabbit)
Today, let’s talk about a recent social event: the forced granting of red codes to depositors of Henan rural banks. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the integrated management of national health codes.
The seriousness and severity of this incident cannot be overstated.
1. Health Code: China’s unique digital epidemic prevention system
The epidemic prevention system established in Chinese Mainland since the outbreak is the most difficult to replicate, the most Chinese characteristic and the most difficult to replicate by other countries and regions, is our digital / big data based prevention and control system. The core of this system is to require each resident to transfer some personal privacy and rights (such as their own travel information), gather these privacy (and rights) into a “pool” and hand them over to the government for the public purpose of epidemic prevention and resistance.
Throughout the world, few countries and regions can establish such a system. I have introduced this set of digital governance models in some previous articles, especially the further development of the Chinese model: the historical watershed role of covid-19 (I); From epidemic prevention and anti-terrorism to saving mankind on climate issues – further development of China’s model: the historical watershed of covid-19 (II). It is believed that the covid-19 epidemic will promote China to accelerate the application of this digital system and apply it to all aspects of public governance and social life.
I also believe that the future of this system refers to the great distinction between the “digital civilization” of China and the West.
——The West will put more emphasis on digital decentralization and personalization, pay more attention to the protection of rights and privacy, and form a more diverse, multi-level and discrete digital world. Digital technology will make the society more scattered and divided, turning into a small community / bubble, resulting in greater separation and confrontation between individuals and groups. Digital technology will constantly challenge and weaken public power, weaken the “organic composition” and “symbiosis” of society, and weaken the shared value and collective consciousness of society.
——Comparatively speaking, China’s digital civilization will be more centralized, socialized and collectivized. Digital science and technology will help to enhance the horizontal and vertical “organic” and “symbiosis” of society, enhance the collective consciousness and value of society, and enable public governance.
These are two completely opposite paths of digital civilization. In addition, the individualism oriented United States / West will take the lead in opposing our digital route and turn the scientific and technological war into a civilized war.
2. why can’t the United States / the West accept the Chinese model?
Because they (here refers to the mainstream values of the United States that affect the whole west through the radiation of English speaking countries) are individualism oriented in nature, and believe that individual rights are absolute, the cornerstone of social ethics, and the ultimate goal, not a means or tool to achieve other goals. Its status and value are above the social and political community, and can not be challenged.
The sole purpose and legitimacy of government / political existence is to protect and serve individuals. The United States / the West have great mistrust of the government – no matter what kind of electoral system is adopted or what kind of open media is available, their deep doubts about the government / politics cannot be dispelled. And open media does not enhance people’s confidence in public power. On the contrary, it weakens people’s trust in all public power, public departments and public institutions (including enterprises) and even the media itself.
In such a distrustful society, there is always a huge contradiction and tension between individuals and the government, and they are in a tense antagonistic relationship.
In such a society, how can people hand over information involving privacy to the government they most distrust to deal with, and possibly limit their rights?
Because of this, if a governance model based on digital technology needs to obtain information from individuals and hand it over to the government for processing, it is likely to be opposed.
This does not only involve health codes. In the United States, it also includes national integrated ID cards, digital elections, etc., which are difficult to implement.
The United States will use the “little brother” of English-speaking countries to infiltrate and spread such ideas and logic to other western countries and even other continents and civilizations.
Undoubtedly, they believe that China’s digital governance will subvert Western values, and add moral judgment to this. They believe that China’s model is “backward” and “evil” in nature, and is the “enemy” of “modern values”.
The contemporary American obsession with individual rights (including only political and civil rights but not economic and social rights) and individual “negative freedoms” is almost “morbid” and somewhat unreasonable. For example, the huge gap between the rich and the poor, the large number of shooting deaths and violent crimes every year, drug abuse, racial injustice, etc. seem to have nothing to do with them, because these seem to be not social problems, but just personal problems, and individuals (“atoms”) can take responsibility for them.
It seems that the whole society only needs to care about one thing, that is, to protect individual rights and negative freedoms from the government. As long as the government doesn’t come out to harm people.
Paranoid personal ethics, in fact, is to magnify and sublimate some selfish, narrow-minded “ego” of human nature into something noble, and express the most mundane and original demands in the most beautiful words.
Of course, the United States / the West also has the tradition of “great love”. However, since the decline of Christian faith in the contemporary era, such energy has also been greatly weakened.
This article does not intend to further the problems of the west, but to talk about China.
3. why can China implement this digital governance model?
First of all, it must be: Chinese collectivism, paternalism and other traditional values; Chinese traditional culture emphasizes individual (to society / collective) obligation, but desalinates individual “claim rights”; Individuals are considered to need to assume certain roles, complete certain functions and contribute certain forces in the collective / society; Individuals are considered to need to consider social interests, public interests and national interests; The individual needs to obey the collective will and choice; Conformity in Chinese traditional culture.
These are the traditional culture and values of Chinese society. Growing up in this environment, it is natural for most people to obey. In fact, they don’t think too much. (in fact, when a foreigner comes to China and wants to use a health code, he can only do as the Romans do: seeing that everyone else is doing it, he naturally follows suit. After doing it, he won’t feel anything. He gets used to it slowly.)
But there is also a very important point: it is true that each of us has given up some privacy and rights to the society, which also makes our lives face some inconveniences and uncertainties – especially because of the crisscross of time and space, the lack of nucleic acid on time or other code changes for epidemic control and Prevention, we will not feel that there is a fundamental problem with this digital system.
First of all, this is part of the joint defense and control efforts. We think it is a good thing to contribute to the society and the country.
Second, we believe that the government will protect personal information and will not illegally collect or abuse it. Instead, we will properly use this system completely and simply for epidemic prevention purposes.
But what people can never think of is that the health code system can really be used for other purposes than epidemic prevention!
It is absolutely unacceptable that the health code system is illegally used for other purposes other than epidemic prevention.
This is an abuse of power, touching the absolute bottom line.
If this happens, it will subvert the basic logic and even legitimacy of the health code and the whole set of digital governance model behind it.
I can’t think of anything more damaging and overdrawing the credibility of the government on this issue.
Moreover, the overseas influence will be very bad: the United States / Westerners wholeheartedly hope to demonize China’s digital road. If I were an anti China person / media, I would shout “home run”. So ah, it’s really a matter of pain for relatives and quick for enemies.
4. the event that depositors of Henan rural banks were given red codes did not arouse people’s doubts about the whole system
Although the theoretical harm is immeasurable. However, it should be noted that the event that depositors of Henan rural banks were given red codes has not yet risen to the suspicion of the whole system.
Why?
——Because this incident is obviously a serious non-compliance, which is a violation of epidemic prevention policies, laws and regulations;
——This abuse of health codes is too strange and heinous, and people don’t think it will be copied in other places for the time being;
——People have not seen a similar phenomenon in other places, that is, the local problems in Henan;
——Obviously, it belongs to Henan Province;
——It is not difficult to find out the source of the problem without technical barriers;
——The operation was so stupid that it was a bit of a joke;
——It has become a public opinion event, which can not be run away under the social spotlight;
——The central government and the central media have stepped in;
——Some other problems and corruption may be found out and exposed and dealt with at the same time.
Therefore, the current events are controllable and will not further endanger the credibility of this valuable system.
But now we must thoroughly investigate this matter. What is it exactly: who are the people involved? What departments, organizations, institutions and groups? What benefits are involved? What is the context and development chain of the event? Who is responsible for this? wait.
Finally, relevant personnel must be dealt with seriously, and those who violate the law should bear criminal responsibility. We need to tell the world that there is absolutely no tolerance for such things. This is an account to the people of the whole country.
5. inconsistent health code management across the country
At the beginning of the epidemic in 2020, the government developed a digital management system to meet the needs of joint prevention and control management, and finally built a health code system that we can not live without every day.
Although the health code system follows the common principles and logic and has certain guiding norms and principles, it is still established by the local governments of various provinces and cities. It relies on the local finance and self selected suppliers, and is specifically managed and subject to the responsibility of the local government.
I understand that at that time, in order to meet the urgent requirements of epidemic prevention and control, and to combine and adapt to the actual situation in different places, this was the most efficient approach.
But now we find that the covid-19 epidemic has entered its third year, and the stage of normalized prevention and control has not yet ended. This set of health code and digital prevention and control system, which is built separately by various regions and lacks national overall management, is insufficient.
In addition, the health code system in various places has some problems, which can not be seen at ordinary times, and often will not appear until the outbreak of the epidemic. In addition, it is the problem of illegal collection and abuse in Henan.
People traveling in different provinces and cities in China should know that the health codes are different in different regions, and there are obvious problems of disunity and lack of integrated management. List one or two.
1) The interfaces are different. Each place has its own sample. Each time you go to a place, you have to scan the local code to enter the local Applet / interface. It is also different to use. Only the travel card is unified.
2) Local systems are disconnected. For example:
——If you have made nucleic acid in one place, you may not be connected with the health code in another place (the articulation relationship of this data connection is quite complex and has no rules. I just tried it. For example, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong and Tianjin do not recognize my Beijing nucleic acid test records, but Tianjin can recognize my Guangdong test records)
——Vaccinated in one place, It may not be connected to the health code of another place (this is an old problem. I just tested it. Guangdong Province, Guangdong Province. Open the health code, and the home page shows that there is “no provincial data” for vaccination , open the vaccination record outside the province and enter another interface to find out my vaccination status in Beijing. Shanghai’s accompanying bid said that I had no vaccination record; By opening the epidemic prevention health information code of the national government service platform, you can find my vaccination records in Beijing. However, this integrated epidemic prevention health code is rarely used in various places. Generally, small programs from various places will be used. This requires individuals to open appropriate applets to display their vaccination records according to scenarios and needs.
3) Health codes vary from place to place. For the same person, the status of health codes may be different across the country, which is not unified across the country. For example, it may pop up in Beijing, but it is green in other places. Open the epidemic prevention health information code of the national government affairs service platform, and there is a function to view the assignment of health codes in various regions:
However, this function only links Beijing, Guangdong, Hebei, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Jiangsu and Shanghai. What about other provinces and cities?
Personal epidemic prevention information is consistent and integrated. Why can different codes be assigned to different places? What logic?
In addition, is the logic of assigning codes unified? Is there a unified specification strictly implemented?
4) Health codes are not mutually recognized. There are so many scenes where people do not recognize each other. Everyone can give many examples, so I won’t list them one by one. Why not recognize each other? On the one hand, the health code system itself is the development, maintenance, management and main responsibility of all regions. On the other hand, code assignment is a local means of prevention and control. It has the characteristics of localization and decentralization. It should meet the requirements of the front line of epidemic prevention in all regions (and may be a very urgent requirement). Therefore, all regions have the status of code assignment in all regions. It is estimated that due to this decentralized operation, the standards, specifications and applications of code assignment are not completely unified in practice, so they are not unified. All localities are subject to their own codes. Moreover, in order to prevent epidemic diseases, one place dare not easily recognize the codes of other places. There will be several results:
First, it is possible that some places are loosely controlled, and their codes are unreliable. Before this wave of Omicron epidemic this year, some places (including Shanghai) were open to management and recognized by all the codes, which may become a loophole
Second, if you feel that the codes in other places are unreliable, it will increase the momentum of non mutual recognition. Local governments can restrict the cross regional mobility of people by assigning codes to specific people (epidemic prevention Regionalism), which constitutes a “layer by layer” of epidemic prevention;
Third, once it is found that the code can be used to restrict population mobility, it may be abused. The case of Henan depositors being forcibly given red codes is an example;
Fourth, the lack of networking and mutual recognition also gives people the opportunity to exploit loopholes. For example, Shanghai was relatively open before. One place was given a window / code, and when it went to other places, it became healthy. For example, if you can’t take a plane or train in Beijing, you can avoid this problem by driving to Hebei / Tianjin / other places.
5) Location code problem. The bright code only displays the personal status. The scanning code not only displays the status, but also participates in the collection of travel information. It is a more important means of data epidemic prevention. Since the outbreak, Beijing has been the most strict in implementing code scanning. You should scan the code when you get on a taxi, when you enter a shopping mall, when you enter a store, and when you enter and leave a community. In Universal Studios, you should scan the code for scenic spots, shops and restaurants. Scan dozens of yards a day. In this way, once an outbreak occurs, it is easy to use data for accurate prevention and control. If a place doesn’t strictly implement the code scanning policy, it will be responsible for problems. At present, other places in China either do not have the function of place code / code scanning, or they exist in name only, without the habit and practice of code scanning. This is also an aspect of the inconsistency between the health code system and management in various regions
6) Identification based vulnerability. For example, by using identity information such as passes and passports, a “two sets” health code system is established for a person to avoid epidemic prevention supervision. This is a long-standing systematic loophole. Many people who are often engaged in business travel know about it, have used it, and are taking advantage of it. I haven’t studied it carefully, but I can understand the logic behind it.
The above are just some typical ones. One can cite more other examples.
In short, the more the future, the more serious the problem of lack of unified management of health codes across the country will be, and unified rectification is needed.
6. we should accelerate the promotion and integration of the health code system across the country
The health code is a national digital epidemic prevention infrastructure, which should be unified for a long time.
1) Data Unicom. Data Unicom across the country, a real name certified natural person corresponds to a set of information, which is dynamically updated. Information such as nucleic acids and vaccines can be found on one platform
2) National integrated health code. Establish a nationwide authoritative health code /app – it can be similar to the integrated epidemic prevention information health code on the current national government service platform, but it should include all basic functions, including information inspection of nucleic acid, vaccine, travel and other data, site code, and other core functions (such as finding nucleic acid detection points), and can be used everywhere to solve the problem of mutual recognition. (in the early days of the epidemic, I still used this integrated health code. Later, this code was the most useless because of the lack of mutual recognition of health codes in various regions, the problem of scanning site codes in Beijing, and the number of days that nucleic acid is generally required, and other more information.)
3) Select national best practices and promote them to the whole country and all over the country. In some places, the health code system is better, such as Beijing:
——In addition to the bright code, there are scanning codes. There are still differences in the text and information between the highlighted code and the scanned code
——With photos (and it is difficult to make beautiful pictures), more real name
——If something goes wrong, it will pop up with explanations
——The old and young health code is also very convenient to query
If there is really good practice, why not promote it in different places and at the national level? Just draw a gourd like this.
4) Establish strict management principles, standards and norms, and consider raising them to the legal level. The collection, processing and application of data, and the assignment of codes to individuals, even if the authority should be placed locally, should also be managed in a very strict and unified standard, and it is better to rise to the legal level. This is not only to do a good job in epidemic prevention and prevent loopholes, but also to strengthen the protection of personal information collection and application and prevent abuse. Kill many birds with one stone. Finally, in practice, if there is any illegal operation, the relevant personnel will be seriously held accountable and investigated for administrative and legal responsibilities.
The benefits of strengthening the unified management of national health codes are very obvious. With the variation of covid-19 virus (Omicron), health code has become more and more important in our life, and it is urgent to strengthen unified and overall management nationwide. The code granting event of Henan depositors should turn a bad thing into a good thing, and become an opportunity to accelerate the nationwide integration of this system.
The significance of unified management of health codes nationwide lies not only in the epidemic prevention itself, but also in the important measures to further optimize, enhance and improve China’s digital governance model.
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