China's latest strategy to track potential COVID-19 infections has sparked uneasy feelings among Richmond’s Chinese-speaking community.
The "Time and Space Companion" uses people’s cell phones to alert them if they have been within an 800-metre radius of someone with an infection for more than 10 minutes in the past 14 days.
If they have, their phone shows a yellow alert and they’re required to report to authorities and subject themselves to two COVID-19 tests within three days to see if have the infection.
Unlike Canada’s COVID Alert app which was implemented in some provinces but not B.C., residents in China have no option but to participate in the Time and Space Companion program.
The app, which includes an individual’s health status, has been installed on the phones of all residents.
"On one hand, it (the strategy) could immediately trace the contacts who might be exposed to help return the city to 'normal' as soon as possible. But, on the other hand, for the policy to be put into practice, Chinese citizens might need to make some sacrifices, such as their privacy and freedom," said Ally Wang, Richmond freelance writer who closely follows politics and social issues in China.
Along with the issue of personal privacy is that of the 800-metre grid.
"800 meters by 800 meters seems to be a huge area and any city in China has a dense population. So the technology goes a bit too far this time," said Wang,
In fact, in Chengdu, a city in western China, at least 82,000 people’s phones turned yellow overnight after the new system was put in place.
Meanwhile, many Chinese netizens took to social media to express their dissatisfaction, albeit covertly.
One person wrote the following poem:
I've walked the road you've walked,
Can that be counted as a date?
The wind that blew on you is now blowing on me
Can that be considered an embrace?
Within 800 meters,
I didn’t have the luck to rub shoulders with you
Yet now you ask me to wait for you for 14 days
The ginkgo leaves are yellow,
It's the fall that's playing tricks!
My Health Code is yellow
Should I also blame the fall?
I heard that the maple leaves turn red in winter
Will my Health Code turn red too?
Oh, my heart is racing.
Some say it's love, it’s passion...
Oh, no, no, it’s just the pandemic.
When the Richmond News reached out on WeChat for reaction to China’s COVID strategy, most simply reposted the poem, saying it has spoken their mind.
Wong believes that whether it be a COVID alert strategy in China or vaccine passports in Canada, societies are having to grapple with the difficult balance of personal privacy versus public health.
