Poets and artists have been inspired for centuries by the dreamy pagodas and pavilions of Hangzhou and its West Lake. Today, the city Marco Polo described as ‘paradise’ is providing a different sort of inspiration – to China’s surveillance state.
Three seemingly unrelated events – involving the city’s most famous son, a locally developed smartphone app that was at the heart of Beijing’s fight against the Covid pandemic, and a local wildlife park – provide important pointers as to where Xi Jinping’s digital control is heading next.
