Could the pandemic affect our perspective on smart cities?

Throughout the coronavirus lockdown, surveillance took on an even more pertinent role than usual, and in smart cities this kind of monitoring will be – at worst – a kind of under-the-surface, biopolitical hazard. In China, Covid-19 has left the door open for Beijing to ramp up citizen surveillance by introducing new and invasive methods under the guise of fighting the pandemic, whether that’s talking drones berating people for not wearing masks, or CCTV installed outside the homes of quarantined individuals.

Commenting on what the pandemic means for smart city revolution, SMU Postdoctoral Research Fellow Xu Chengwei pointed out that in China, “the general public has less say”.