Beijing residents returning to the city from other places are being issued electronic bracelets that monitor body temperature and track location data.
The bracelets are reportedly mandated by the Chinese Communist Party to be worn 24/7, and can only be removed while showering, or to replace batteries, reports Chinese human rights activist Jennifer Zeng.
According to the CCP, the purpose of the bracelets, which upload data to accompanying phone apps, is to help the government fight the spread of Covid-19.
Reuters also reports Beijing residents returning from domestic travel are being asked to wear the bio-surveillance trackers during mandatory home quarantine periods.
Chinese authorities have also “fit doors with movement sensors to monitor their movements but until now have not widely discussed the use of electronic bracelets.”
Numerous posts on the Chinese social media app Weibo are purportedly highly suspicious of the bracelets, with various users likening them to internet-connected handcuffs and calling them “excessive.”
Reuters reports many of those posts “were removed by Thursday afternoon, as well as a related hashtag that had garnered over 30 million views, generating an animated discussion on the platform.”
Hong Kong has also begun requiring electronic wristbands for people who test positive for Covid and are required to quarantine at home.
“Patients deemed suitable for home quarantine are usually required to undergo a two-week isolation period,” reports the South China Morning Post. “Those with at least two doses of Covid-19 vaccine will be allowed to leave after testing negative consecutively on the sixth and seventh day.”
Hong Kong residents who violate the rules face steep fines or imprisonment.
Many fear the bracelets will later be used to track the movements of dissidents, or people who attend demonstrations protesting against the Chinese Communist Party.
Reporting from Infowars.
