Taiwan and South Korea also do a lot of cellphone tracking. So does the NSA, but for completely different reasons... > how little freedom the people could hav

Taiwan and South Korea also do a lot of cellphone tracking. So does the NSA, but for completely different reasons... > how little freedom the people could have should the government wish it. In some ways, yes, but even the Chinese government is subject to pressure from public opinion. A major reason why the government continues the zero-CoVID policy is that it's popular. There are also scandals that force a change in policy: for example, changes to how the Xi'an lockdown was implemented after a number of highly publicized stories of individuals who suffered because of rigidly enforced rules.