Hot Pot Surveillance

Imagine this. You go to your favourite restaurant and discover it has more than 60 security cameras.

Wow, you might think. They are really security conscious.

But what if every table in the restaurant is being captured by not one, but two cameras exclusively focused on the patrons.

It’d probably creep you out a bit.

But what if this is not just any restaurant. It’s an eatery linked to the Chinese Communist Government and the cameras are there to spy on you.

If you are like me you’d be appalled.

But that’s what’s happened in Canada…and it could well be happening here too.

In the worlds of one observer China’s surveillance system of ‘social credit’ has expanded globally

China’s social credit system is a method of documenting individual and corporate behaviour which officials insist is designed to ‘build trust’.

In reality, it is a system of perpetual spying by the communist tyrants to punish non-compliant behaviour. Now it appears it is being used to spy on patrons of upmarket restaurants in foreign countries.

These are the sorts of restaurants frequented by diplomats, politicians and business professionals where business deals, strategies and secrets could be discussed.

Little wonder that information would have appeal to the communists.

The restaurant mentioned above is the Haidilao Hot Pot in Vancouver.

There are 935 Haidilao Hot Pot locations around the world …including here in Australia.

They boast 36 million VIP members and employ more than 60,000 staff.

I don’t know if all of them are used to spy on their patrons but the manager of the Vancouver operation – Ryan Pan, is quoted as saying the cameras were installed to ‘punish staff’ and to ‘people track’.

He acknowledged the video footage was sent back to China but would only say the reason for this was ‘secret’.

Nothing to worry about there I am sure….just your private dinner conversation and biometric details being sent back to the biggest surveillance state in history.

The Chinese social credit system requires all Chinese citizens to be enrolled on a national database where they are rated on a ‘social score’.

Do the ‘right’ thing by the CCP and you’ll get priority benefits but if you hang out with the ‘wrong type’ and you might be banned from taking public transport.

Make no mistake, it is absolute tyranny.

It works the same with Chinese businesses in China but now it is clear that the social credit score applies to Chinese businesses operating internationally too.

We know international brands are punished by China if they don’t actively support China’s policies.

That’s why you find the NBA and other pathetic virtue signalling corporates protesting against the plight of multi-millionaire black basketballers in America while praising the Chinese communist party.

The CCP, that’s the team committing genocide against the Uighurs and harvesting organs for sale…but why let that interfere with the business of basketball?

In February of this year the Director of Canada’s Security Intelligence Service said:

"To be clear, the threat does not come from the Chinese people, but rather the Government of China that is pursuing a strategy for geopolitical advantage on all fronts-economic, technical, political, and military-and using all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty. We must all strengthen our defences.”

We’ve had similar warnings from our own intelligence agencies but who knows how far the apparatus of the Communist surveillance state has extended beyond its own borders.

It could be coming to a hot pot near you