21Jun/19Off
China’s Communist Party Is Making Its Own (Virtual) Reality
The local Zhongshan Communist Party branch is in possession of a toy not yet available to its big-city counterparts. Thanks to a multimillion-yuan agreement with Xijian (also called Seengene in English), China’s leading augmented reality start-up, Zhongshan’s apparatchik need no longer dread assigned readings of party ideology. After a cadre dons the RoboCop-like headset and opens the bright-red “Guidelines of the Chinese Communist Party,” select passages of text come alive—commands such as “the party rules all” burst out, with flowery backgrounds and moving animations to match.
President Xi Jinping himself authorized a letter in October congratulating the VR industry for “expanding humanity’s sensory abilities,” which earned a splashy reception at a global VR conference held that month in China.
China accounts for 82 percent of global shipments for VR headsets. By late 2018, U.S. investment into AR technologies had slumped to $120 million, while the corresponding Chinese sum had surged to $3.9 billion.
The party leadership’s vision of transforming China from an export manufacturing economy to a world leader in technological innovation, as outlined by the Made in China 2025 master plan, is one reason behind the country’s ever-growing herd of AR/VR start-ups. Xijian CEO Liu Yang refers to concerted government efforts to support tech start-ups, including tax cuts and fast-tracking the registration process, as one of the “advantages of being an AR start-up in a one-party state.”
Most Chinese propaganda is mind-numbingly dull, from banners bearing hackneyed slogans to subway ads showing citizens tearing up as they sing the national anthem. But AR and VR tech offers the regime a way to shine up the propaganda toolbox.
A month prior, the Propaganda Department of the Communist Youth League debuted an anime glorifying the life of Karl Marx. While largely panned, it at least highlighted the party’s increasing savviness on how to get down with the kids—the Japanese cartoon genre is beloved by Chinese youth all over the country.
See the full story here: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/21/chinas-communist-party-is-making-its-own-virtual-reality/
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