A new campaign to try and tackle China’s massive food waste issue has raised concerns about increased citizen surveillance in an already highly scrutinized society.
President Xi Jinping announced the campaign last month to try and halt the “shocking and distressing” problem of food waste during the coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted global food supply chains.
China threw out enough food in 2015 to feed at least 30 to 50 million people, according to CNN, which is about the equivalent of the state of Texas or the populations of Australia and New Zealand combined.
As part of the campaign, Shanghai officials are asking residents to report food-wasting behaviors. Restaurant diners are being asked to order at least one fewer dish than the number of people in their party, and one restaurant in the southern Hunan province has asked diners to weigh themselves before coming in to help choose an appropriate meal for them.
Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based political analyst and former political science professor at Tsinghua University, said the new campaign is likely to make people feel further intruded on by the state.
“Three meals a day is something very personal to the ordinary people,” Wu said. “Even the most politically apathetic person can feel their daily life habits challenged and threatened.”
China is also looking into more strict measures when it comes to food, including passing laws against food waste and monitoring online activity that engages in overeating or waste. Some streaming platforms have threatened food bloggers with potential bans for overeating.
Wu described eating as “one of the few things people can freely do under China’s authoritarian system,” which is now being threatened by the new campaign.
State-run media reported that in a district government in the Heilongjiang province, the campaign has gone as far as to set up a “food waste exposure system,” installing cameras near collection bins where workers toss their leftovers.
Those caught on camera more than three times will reportedly be named and shamed, with footage of them being played on TV screens across the canteens.
Other local governments have encouraged citizens to report on people they see overeating or wasting food, though the punishments for doing so were not specified.
Local restaurateurs have expressed economic concerns on top of security, saying that with the hit the food service industry took with the pandemic, the new campaign may also hinder their businesses.
“How can restaurants restrict customers from ordering more food?” said Wang, a Wuhan resident whose restaurant shut down over the pandemic lockdown. “Restaurant owners all want to have good business.”
