Building a Panopticon Through Nodal Governance: Mass Surveillance and Plural Policing in China’s

Drawing on the personal data and data supplied by public service providers, the system calculates the possibility of close contact and the likelihood of contracting the virus using algorithms (Cong 2021). [...] The connection between nodal governance and the panopticon lies in the delicate power relations between the state and other disciplinary institutions. [...] Drawing on the literature review, the following hypotheses were developed in relation to the research questions: Hypothesis 1: The pluralised governance model in Chinese urban communities led to conflicts between denizens and non- denizens during the pandemic. [...] At the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese state adopted a ‘firebreak’ rationale: the pandemic centre (Wuhan and Hubei) must be immediately sealed, and all people who recently visited the pandemic centre must be found and tested. [...] Regardless of the outcome, the narrative of technological solutionism will continue to succeed, if the nodal governance framework in China keeps operating in an exclusionary way and leaving the roles of ‘anchor’ and ‘saviour’ to the state.