What you describe is only circumstantially the case for the time being. These technologies are only becoming more affordable to a wider range of governments tha

What you describe is only circumstantially the case for the time being. These technologies are only becoming more affordable to a wider range of governments that previously wouldn't have dreamed of the resources necessary for them. But, just as almost all computing becomes cheaper per unit of data processed or any other basic measure, so too does the apparatus for widespread digital surveillance. What China and only a few others can do now is something that more countries will be able to do in the coming decades unless some major technological or social shift occurs. That's an idea that bears much closer consideration The above works institutionally in the same way that you as an average person can today use a tiny device that's affordable to billions of people and fits in your pocket for doing things that 30 to 40 years ago would have been available only to very wealthy individuals and organizations.