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<h1 class="css-19v093x">How China is using QR code apps
to contain Covid-19</h1>
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<div class="css-7kp13n">By</div>
<div class="css-7ol5x1"><span class="css-1q5ec3n">Nicole
Jao</span></div>
<div class="css-8rl9b7">technode.com</div>
<div class="css-zskk6u">10 min</div>
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<span><span>9</span> min read</span>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by <a
href="https://technode.com/author/david-cohen/">David
Cohen</a> and <a
href="https://technode.com/author/chrisudemans/">Chris
Udemans</a>.</em></p>
<p>As China goes back to work after weeks of
epidemic lockdown, it’s betting on high-tech
QR code quarantines to keep the virus from
spreading.</p>
<p>In Hangzhou, scanning an Alibaba ID code
has become a routine part of daily life,
essentially a health passport for the city.
A mini-app embedded in Alipay or WeChat
rates people as red, yellow, or green risks.
To enter an apartment complex or a market,
residents must scan a QR code at a manned
checkpoint, letting the system know where
they are and producing a one-time color code
pass to show the guard.</p>
<p>Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province,
became the first to adopt the QR code system
on Feb. 11, although lockdown continued for
most residents until Feb. 15. Alipay <a
href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/amB7fBxLw8KSR9DcUsbTWg">announced</a>
on Feb. 16 that it was ramping up
development support for a national health
code system that assesses individuals for
self-quarantine based on basic health
information and travel history, which it is
preparing to launch this week under the
guidance of the State Council, China’s
cabinet.</p>
<p>By Feb. 20, Alipay boasted that platforms
it had helped develop were already <a
href="https://technode.com/2020/02/20/health-rating-system-deployed-in-over-100-cities-alipay/">in
use</a> in over 100 cities, including all
cities in Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Hainan, as
well as Chongqing.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>According to our observations, there is
no place that enforces the health passport
system as rigorously as in Zhejiang.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But national implementation doesn’t mean a
unified national system—instead, each
participating city is launching a local
version of the system, creating a fragmented
landscape resembling local <a
href="https://technode.com/2018/10/23/china-social-credit/">social
credit system</a> pilots. Some have
versions of Alipay’s system, some have local
apps—and others have both. While online
tracking ended Hangzhou’s total lockdown,
many other cities have not revised
quarantine rules to reflect new online
systems.</p>
<h2>How QR code systems work</h2>
<p>As of Feb. 25, sources on the ground
described very limited implementation
outside Alipay’s home province of Zhejiang,
ranging from paper-based lockdown in
Shanghai to laxly enforced digital
checkpoints in Shenzhen. Talking to locals
in cities that have adopted health passport
systems, TechNode saw its limits: the app
alone does nothing without human-based
enforcement and public compliance, and few
cities outside Zhejiang have overcome these
human challenges.</p>
<p>The system shows both how much is possible
with high-tech surveillance—and how much
human input is required to make such systems
work.</p>
<p>To register, individuals provide their
name, ID number, phone number. The
health-rating platform, asks a series of
questions, including physical health
condition and whether the individual has
traveled to virus-hit areas or has come into
contact with infected cases, to produce an
initial rating. These ratings are reported
to change, likely informed by where the user
has checked in and new reports of
infections.</p>
<p>According to Hangzhou <a
href="https://www.hotbak.net/key/%E6%9D%AD%E5%B7%9E%E5%81%A5%E5%BA%B7%E7%A0%81%E4%B8%8A%E7%BA%BF%E7%BA%A2%E9%BB%84%E7%BB%BF%E4%B8%89%E7%A0%81%E9%9A%94%E7%A6%BB%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E6%9C%89%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%8D%E5%90%8C%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E7%94%B3%E9%A2%86.html">rules</a>,
residents with a green code are allowed to
move around the city freely. Yellow means a
seven-day quarantine is required, and red
requires a 14-day quarantine. Some versions
adopt a slightly different color-coding
system, but the general idea is the same—to
track mobility and regulate it based on risk
assessments. Though the questionnaires
record self-reported information, public
data is used for verification purposes.</p>
<p>Internet users have questioned the way the
system analyzes health and travel data. In
numerous accounts on microblogging platform
Weibo, netizens said people living in the
same household were given different color
codes even though they had been isolated
together for weeks.</p>
<p>Others have expressed frustration with
unpredictability, saying they were initially
given a green code only to have it change to
red after a few days. The colors are
dynamic, and some people taking what they
believe to be adequate measures to protect
themselves while outdoors have had their
mobility limited after their code changed
color.</p>
<p>While Alipay’s version is associated with a
State Council project, local governments are
not required to adopt it. WeChat operator
Tencent is working with the State
Information Center to develop similar QR
code-passed health passports.</p>
<p>Tencent’s version, called “Tencent
Healthcare Code,” is already available in
provinces including Guangdong, Sichuan, and
Yunnan.</p>
<p>While the system has the potential to bring
a semblance of normal life back to places
that have been locked down for weeks due to
the outbreak, to create a surveillance
system capable of tracking 1.4 billion
people everywhere they go comes at great
challenges and costs.</p>
<h2>To enter market, scan QR code</h2>
<p>Uny Cao, a resident of Hangzhou, says that
he scans twice a day—once when he goes to
the vegetable market, and once when he
returns home. Getting on the subway, riding
a bus, or going to a park would mean more
scans, so he’s chosen to limit these
behaviors. Many also avoid borrowing share
bikes, reasoning that the apps may share
data with the Health Code:</p>
<p>“A few days ago, they found a new case in
City North. Rumor spread that if you have
rented a shared bike in that region, your
code might get a downgrade,” he said. “So
for those few days, I avoided renting shared
bikes, in case they discover a new patient
in my area.”</p>
<p>According to our observations, there is no
place that enforces the health passport
system as rigorously as in Zhejiang.</p>
<p>Regular scans both track and shape
behavior. Sources told TechNode that
citizens are required to show their code to
be scanned when entering supermarkets and
residential areas as well as getting on the
subway and buses.</p>
<p>For Hangzhou residents, the inconveniences
are a small price for something like normal
life—for the ten days before the app
launched, the city was forced to stay
indoors except for short trips to buy food
every other day. Since the code system came
in, residents have been allowed to leave
their homes and even to drive to other
cities.</p>
<p>Even here, enthusiasm has its limits: While
apartment buildings and food markets appear
to be rigorously enforcing the rules,
TechNode correspondents have walked into
banks past napping checkpoint guards.
Restaurants and smaller shops are starting
to re-open without check-in systems.</p>
<p>The Hangzhou version of the mini-app, which
the national version will reportedly be
based on, allows non-Hangzhou residents and
foreigners to register. Other places such as
Shanghai and Shenzhen’s platform only allows
residents to apply for a pass.</p>
<p>The Hangzhou health passport works for
long-distance travel. When a TechNode
correspondent traveled from Shanghai to
Hangzhou, train station staff checked
travelers’ health codes and wrote down their
ID numbers. Travelers who had applied for
codes outside of Hangzhou had no problems
entering the city.</p>
<h2>Mileage may vary</h2>
<p>Beyond Hangzhou, enforcement can be more
lax. In Jinhua, a city in Zhejiang 180
kilometers south of Hangzhou, a 25-year-old
city resident told TechNode that she only
needs to use the system when taking public
transport. Her local supermarkets and
residential community do not check the color
of her QR code when she leaves her
apartment. The system is enforced more
stringently for out-of-towners, she said.</p>
<p>In a rural area, quarantine guards
suggested a TechNode correspondent write
down an ID number on a piece of paper to
save time registering with a local version
of the color codes mini-app.</p>
<p>But other cities can enforce non-app limits
far more strictly, suggesting that they do
not fully trust the app: A resident in the
eastern Chinese city of Ningbo says there
are checkpoints set up at community
complexes and supermarkets. People are being
asked to show, but not scan, their QR code
at public places. On top of enforcing the
new health code system at the community
level, the previous lockdown rules still
apply, the Ningbo resident said. In her
apartment compound, residents are required
to show the QR code at the entrance of the
complex and still adhere to the rule that
every household can only send one person out
every two days.</p>
<p>The source also said her relative purposely
left out the fact that he just came back
from Wuhan when filling out the
questionnaire. The police called days later
and ask why he didn’t report it. They found
the license plate under his name had been in
Wuhan recently.</p>
<p>For people that have returned to their
work, they have to show the QR code when
leaving the apartment complex and also show
a document from their employer that permits
them to return to work.</p>
<h2>Active but unused</h2>
<p>TechNode sources described health passport
systems that were implemented either
spottily or not at all. In some places,
including Shanghai, Beijing, and central
China’s Hubei, the worst-hit province in the
country, apps were superseded by strict
offline measures; in others, such as
Guangdong, quarantine appears to be lax.</p>
<p>More than a week after launching a
track-everything health code system,
Shanghai is still very much relying on paper
records to enforce a 14-day quarantine on
all new arrivals. Shanghai launched health
passports as a new feature within its
pre-existing “Health Cloud” mini-app on Feb.
17, accessible on Alipay and WeChat. But
TechNode correspondents could not find a
place to scan the app inside the city,
finding checkpoints at office buildings and
apartment complexes relying on paper records
and paper cards or stickers to identify
approved residents or workers.</p>
<p>In Shenzhen, the headquarter of internet
giant Tencent, sources say that the health
code system has been mostly ignored as the
city hurries to get back to work.</p>
<p>Henk Werner, head of Shenzhen-based
hardware incubator Trouble Maker, told
TechNode that he and his friends had not
bothered to register for the local version
unless they wanted to take the subway.
Residents are being asked to show QR codes
at places like the parking lot of an
apartment complex, but found it possible to
bypass the checkpoint. Another source in
Shenzhen says she hasn’t bothered to
register—and that she’s going to work by
taxi every day with a paper pass.</p>
<p>The central city of Xi’an has used a more
limited pass system that requires scan
check-ins but does not display a color code
for about a week. Graduate student Liu Weiqi
and TechNode editor Wang Boyuan both
described checkpoints at the entrances to
apartment compounds, but saw mixed use of
the app. While Wang saw people using the app
to enter his apartment compound, Liu made a
trip to the market by bus on Feb. 25, and
found that in practice he was registered on
paper records everywhere but the market. On
Feb. 25, the city announced that it is
adopting a version of Alipay’s color
code-based pass app.</p>
<p>A source in Chengdu said even though the
city implemented a health passport on Feb.
21, it’s not enforced. Residents can go out
without being asked to show the code. She
said it’s probably because the area she
lives in is mostly locals rather than
out-of-towners, who are seen as being a
higher risk.</p>
<p>At the epicenter of the outbreak, attempts
to roll out the health check system have
also had limited effect, simply because no
one is going out to be checked. Earlier this
week Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the
Covid-19 outbreak, <a
href="http://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202002241394778454.html">launched</a>
a Tencent version of the health passport.
The local government now recommends
residents who need to leave their apartment
complex for valid reasons to apply for the
pass.</p>
<p>Wu Chuan, a 26-year-old resident of
Yichang, a city in Hubei that is
approximately a four-hour drive from Wuhan,
told TechNode he hasn’t stepped out of his
home for close to a month and wasn’t aware
of any health passport platform in Hubei.</p>
<p>The city has a strictly enforced
health-reporting system that requires
citizens to fill out an application if they
plan to leave the community complex. Without
official approval, they’re forbidden to do
so. Wu said the health passport system does
not seem to have much use in his city
because, unlike Hangzhou and other
metropoles that actually allow people out
and go about their usual activities, it is
still under lockdown.</p>
<p>Suizhou, a city 180 kilometers northeast of
Wuhan, has also begun implementing a health
passport system. People with green codes
will need to have their temperatures checked
before being allowed through checkpoints.
Those with yellow and red codes will not be
permitted to pass. The system is not yet
mandatory and a resident of the city told
TechNode that she is still not allowed to
leave her residential community.</p>
<h2>Big data, huge payroll</h2>
<p>It is unclear whether the implementation
will improve after the launch of the
national version of the health code this
week. Although it is a standardized system
across the country, according to Alipay,
local governments have the liberty to decide
whether they want to adopt the version of
not.</p>
<p>In order for the system to work, cities
need to deploy checkpoints on highways and
roads, on public transportation, and
apartment complexes—which requires
tremendous manpower to operate. Then they
need to supervise these guards closely
enough to make sure they do the work.</p>
<p>Hangzhou under the watchful of eye an app
shows us what an extreme version of mass
surveillance might look like. But it also
shows how far we are from that world—it
takes a lot more than the click of a button
to know where people are.</p>
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