China’s national surveillance system, called the Skynet Project, equipped the country with more than 20 million cameras dedicated to “live surveillance and recording” and millions more are expected to be added by 2020, according to a 2017 report by Chinese state media.

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Local authorities have also deployed their own systems in certain areas, including kindergartens, restaurant kitchens, and even inside taxis. Research firm IHS Markit estimated that the country’s entire surveillance network had over 170 million cameras in use in 2017 and that the number next year would reach 600 million.

Government spending contributed to 47.6 per cent of sales in China’s video surveillance industry in 2018, with the transport sector accounting for 10.7 per cent and education services taking up 7.1 per cent, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

In the space of two months earlier year, three fugitives who attended mainland Chinese concerts given by Hong Kong pop star Jacky Cheung were apprehended separately after they were flagged by facial recognition.

Increased surveillance has also worked in solving crimes in the US as well. The suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 were quickly identified after investigators picked them out from CCTV footage, prompting calls from law enforcement for more surveillance cameras to be installed.

However, while countries are strengthening surveillance for security reasons, there has been resistance from citizens who feel that their privacy is being invaded.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has argued that although the US Constitution offers some protection against video surveillance searches conducted by the police, there are “no general, legally enforceable rules to limit privacy invasions and protect against abuse of CCTV systems.”

Several Chinese artificial intelligence companies have gone beyond just CCTV, developing cameras that can scan faces and identify movements in certain scenarios. They have since faced an outcry from western governments and human rights activists over alleged mass surveillance of the Muslim Uygur minority and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang.

In October, Chinese surveillance camera providers Hikvision and Dahua, plus facial recognition giants SenseTime, Megvii and Yitu, were slapped with a ban on buying US-made technology after Washington tied them to alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.

At least 2,000 Chinese-made surveillance cameras from entities including Hikvision and Dahua were being used by the US government as of late July, the Financial Times reported.

US tech companies have also been implicated, with the Wall Street Journal reporting last month that Seagate, Intel and Hewlett Packard have profited from exporting components, know-how or funding to China’s surveillance industry.

India, Russia and Brazil have a lower than expected number of CCTV cameras, Precisesecurity.com said, adding that the numbers should be higher because these countries only reported data for some cities.