The rising digital surveillance system in China attracts attentions from the world. In this talk, based on the detailed information of newly utilized government procurement contracts, Professor Pinghan Liang will introduce some ongoing quantitative works about the features, the motivations and social impact of China’s public surveillance system. The talk will attempt to answer the following questions: Why did local governments procure surveillance cameras? Which government departments are the main buyers? Did local governments use surveillance system to collect fines to alleviate fiscal pressure? What is the social and economic impact of public surveillance system?

Pinghan Liang is a professor at the School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, China, and currently he is Swire visiting fellow
at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. His recent research interests include local government behaviour, Behavioral and Experimental Economics, and the social and political
impact of digital technology. He has published extensively in Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Comparative
Economics, China Economic Review, and other leading international and Chinese academic journals. His research was funded by the National Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation, etc., and received awards from the Ministry of Education and various provincial governments in China.