Audio only

We Have Been Harmonized

Life in China's Surveillance StateBy Kai StrittmatterNarrated by Matthew Waterson
Length10h 29m

About this audiobook

Named a Notable Work of Nonfiction of 2020 by the Washington Post As heard on NPR's Fresh Air, We Have Been Harmonized, by award-winning correspondent Kai Strittmatter, offers a groundbreaking look, based on decades of research, at how China created the most terrifying surveillance state in history.  China’s new drive for repression is being underpinned by unpre­cedented advances in technology: facial and voice recognition, GPS tracking, supercomputer databases, intercepted cell phone conver­sations, the monitoring of app use, and millions of high-resolution security cameras make it nearly impossible for a Chinese citizen to hide anything from authorities. Commercial transactions, including food deliveries and online purchases, are fed into vast databases, along with everything from biometric information to social media activities to methods of birth control. Cameras (so advanced that they can locate a single person within a stadium crowd of 60,000) scan for faces and walking patterns to track each individual’s move­ment. In some schools, children’s facial expressions are monitored to make sure they are paying attention at the right times. In a new Social Credit System, each citizen is given a score for good behavior; for those who rate poorly, punishments include being banned from flying or taking high-speed trains, exclusion from certain jobs, and preventing their children from attending better schools. And it gets worse: advanced surveillance has led to the imprisonment of more than a million Chinese citizens in western China alone, many held in draconian “reeducation” camps. This digital totalitarianism has been made possible not only with the help of Chinese private tech companies, but the complic­ity of Western governments and corporations eager to gain access to China’s huge market. And while governments debate trade wars and tariffs, the Chinese Communist Party and its local partners are aggressively stepping up their efforts to export their surveillance technology abroad—including to the United States. We Have Been Harmonized is a terrifying portrait of life under unprecedented government surveillance—and a dire warning about what could happen anywhere under the pretense of national security. “Terrifying. … A warning call." —The Sunday Times (UK), a “Best Book of the Year so Far”

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.3 (4.2K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenrePolitics and Government, Psychology
Length10 hrs 29 mins
Narrated byMatthew Waterson
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 1, 2020
LanguageEnglish
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of RevolutionAnand Gopal22h 36m4.7 (584)$34 · $0.00
KrantikariSanjeev Sanyal11h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$16 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
To Rescue the American SpiritBret Baier10h 12m4.5 (2.7K)$8 · $0.00
StonewalledSharyl Attkisson15h 19m4.5 (4.3K)$33 · $0.00
The World According to Orwell: 1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 38m4.6 (1.1K)$0.99 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m4.7 (594)$24 · $0.00
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett2h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m4.6 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m4.6 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m4.6 (543)$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m4.6 (1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m4.5 (59.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Mis-Education of the NegroCarter Godwin Woodson5h 4m4.5 (29.4K)$1.20 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m4.6 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m4.6 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m4.6 (503)$29 · $0.00
Disturbed in Their NestsAlephonsion Deng, Judy A. Bernstein11h 22m4.6 (595)$23 · $0.00
No Name in the StreetJames Baldwin5h4.5 (8.5K)$20 · $0.00
Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass4h 13m4.5 (309.9K)$1.20 · $0.00
Magic SeasonWade Rouse6h 41m4.6 (855)$24 · $0.00

You may also like

The Immortal King RaoVauhini Vara12h 43m3.7 (6.1K)$33 · $0.00
Making SenseSam Harris22h 27m4.1 (3K)$46 · $0.00
BlindsightMatt Johnson PhD, Prince Ghuman9h4.3 (791)$20 · $0.00
Big DataViktor Mayer-Schönberger, Kenneth Cukier9h 41m4.0 (27.3K)$29 · $0.00
System ErrorRob Reich, Mehran Sahami, Jeremy M. Weinstein11h 29m4.0 (1.6K)$29 · $0.00
More Than WordsJohn Warner7h 46m4.0 (513)$23
The Hour of the PredatorGiuliano da Empoli3h 9m4.2 (5.6K)$5 · $0.00
Socialism Is EvilJustin T. Haskins2h 16m4.4 (386)$15 · $0.00
Void StarZachary Mason15h 56m3.7 (3.7K)$23 · $0.00
Some RemarksNeal Stephenson11h 36m3.9 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Beyond the ValleyRamesh Srinivasan12h 34m4.0 (186)$23 · $0.00
Mother of InventionKatrine Marçal6h 54m$17 · $0.00
Think Like a HumanDavid Weitzner8h 36m4.1 (16)$26 · $0.00
No More WorkJames Livingston3h 16m3.7 (449)$15
BitwiseDavid Auerbach9h 54m3.8 (431)$23 · $0.00
MuskismQuinn Slobodian, Ben Tarnoff5h 59m3.9 (186)$24 · $0.00
The Fight BackMaria Ressa10h 40m$29 · $0.00
Words and Electricity: On the Fading Edge of LanguageTz47m4.4 (60)Free
Digital HellMorgan B. Blake4h 54m$4.10 · $0.00
History Emergent: Janus and the Identity CrisisK.W. Moser1h 21m4.3 (24) Only with Ultra