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Shkruar nga PamfletiAn analysis based on the article "Break the Asian Machine Age" by John Waters and Ross Calvin explains how surveillance technology and Smart City models are used globally for social discipline...
The article “Break the Asian Machine Age ,” published on January 3, 2026 by John Waters and Ross Calvin, presents a direct analysis of how authoritarian regimes use technology not for public services but for social control. The authors connect this model to the doctrine articulated in the 1999 book Unrestricted Warfare, in which two senior officers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army describe modern warfare as a process without boundaries between the battlefield and civilian life.
According to this doctrine, the state does not need to confront the adversary directly. It can strike through currency, institutions, information, collective psychology, and social destabilization. This war is waged simultaneously in the financial, legal, digital, and psychological realms. The article uses this framework to describe what the authors call the “Asian Machine Age.”
The psychology of programmed obedience
Waters and Calvin define the Asian Machine Age as a form of persuasion engineering. The state uses mass surveillance, rating systems, and fear to reshape individual behavior. The citizen is treated not as a political subject, but as a data profile to be monitored, evaluated, and corrected.
This model transforms thought, movement, and decision-making into data readable by algorithms. The goal is not constant punishment, but prevention of deviance. The citizen adapts behavior to avoid penalization. Self-censorship replaces overt violence.
Smart City as a control architecture
In their analysis, the authors focus on the so-called “Smart City” model. They describe it not as a neutral urban or technological project, but as an architecture of power. In China, these systems integrate public and private data. Over 700 million cameras monitor face, voice and movement. QR codes, loyalty apps and point systems measure ideological conformity. Health apps are used for political purposes.
This system creates a disciplinary mechanism that delays social explosions. The authors cite administrative charges such as “causing conflicts,” “spreading rumors,” or “endangering security,” which lead to job losses, blacklisting, and family punishments. The system operates through constant fear and the preservation of public image.
Exporting the model beyond China
The article argues that this model is not limited to China. The Chinese Communist Party exports surveillance technology, digital standards, and cyber laws to over 70 countries. Urban security platforms, telecommunications networks, and infrastructure contracts often involve access to data and long-term dependencies.
The authors emphasize that China is presented as a partner of the Global South and not as a classic colonial power. It penetrates through trade, culture and technical diplomacy. Critics are labeled as Sinophobes. Chinese technological standards influence international regulatory bodies. Systems like BeiDou serve simultaneously for civil logistics, surveillance and military support.
Immigrants, corporations and self-censorship
Another part of the analysis relates to how this model is projected through the diaspora and Western corporations. The United Front Labor Department infiltrates universities, businesses, and social networks. The state monitors students and immigrants through embassies and formal organizations. Families in China face penalties for activities abroad.
Western corporations, according to the authors, adapt products and content to maintain access to the Chinese market. Global investors end up funding companies linked to surveillance and repression, while auditing and transparency are blocked by Chinese laws.
Albania and structural risk
Starting from this analysis, the question arises as to how the described models are reflected in projects such as Smart City in Albania. The official narrative presents these systems as modernization, security and administrative efficiency. In practice, they build a centralized data collection and processing infrastructure.
Albania does not yet have a complete legal framework for artificial intelligence. Parliamentary oversight over surveillance technologies remains limited. The institutions that administer these systems are directly accountable to the executive. Citizens lack transparency over the use of their data and there are no effective complaint mechanisms.
In this context, the danger is not related to the technology itself, but to the way it is integrated into a state with weak institutions and a history of abuse of power. As the article warns, technology without accountability becomes an instrument of discipline.
“Break the Asian Machine Age” treats the Machine Age as a real conflict over how power views the individual. One logic reduces the citizen to a manageable unit of data. The other relies on the individual who thinks, speaks, and creates. /Pamphlet
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