From pandemic control to data-driven governance: The case of China’s health code

Current debates over digital contact tracing mainly focus on the tools and experiences in
the West. China’s health code, while often seen as one of the earliest and most widely
adopted apps since the outbreak of COVID-19, has not been studied specifically. This
article provides a detailed analysis of the health code, draws comparison with the contact
tracing apps developed by Google and Apple, and seeks to understand the specifications
and contradictions internal to the health code’s development and deployment in China.
Looking at both technical features and the mode and process of its adoption, the article
argues that the health code is strictly speaking not a contact tracing tool, but a technology
of population control which is integrated in traditional forms of control and facilitates the
enhancement of such control. As a technology of ruling the population, rather than the virus
as such, the health code also reveals crucial problems in the modernization and
informatization of the state governance and public administration. A critique on the
health code solely informed by privacy and personal data protection runs the risk of
being co-opted by the government and technology companies deploying such tools to
expand their surveillance and regulatory power.