en.humanrights.cn: The coronavirus pandemic has raged across the world and become a public health emergency that has drawn worldwide attention. Now, we are still facing great difficulties and challenges in containing the virus. But, compared to the outbreak of SARS 17 years ago, information technology such as artificial intelligence and big data has emerged as a powerful weapon to fight the virus. Today, we are pleased to have Mr. Xu Yao, associate research fellow at the Center for Human Rights Studies, Nankai University. He will share his thoughts on the role of information technology in human rights protection during the fight against the pandemic. Hello, Mr Xu.
Xu Yao: Hello, Qi Yu.
en.humanrights.cn: We all know that remote learning has been pivotal in keeping students learning amid school closures during the pandemic. What impact does this new "Internet + Education" model have on students' right to education and how does it contribute to education equity?
Xu Yao: During the pandemic, the Ministry of Education has called upon schools and students across the country to keep teaching and learning amid class suspension. It is the first attempt ever to conduct online education on such a large scale in history. It has proved to be a very effective method in minimizing the impact of the pandemic on people's right to education .
In many respects, online education provides us with diverse forms of education. With this model, the space of learning is expanded and the forms of learning are diversified. More importantly, as we all know the allocation of education resources in China is not balanced enough. Disparities exist between urban and rural areas, even between different regions in the same city. Online education promotes the sharing of high-quality education resources among different subjects and children from different areas. So, in that sense, it may have promoted education equity.
But we know distance education will not realize full education equity right away. It is not realistic. There are certain prerequisites to be met to achieve that goal. I learned that there is only one computer in some households in mountainous areas. Children have to use it in turn or even borrow their neighbor's equipment. Some researchers suggest that as many as 30% of children have no access to such equipment.
So, it is far too early to say whether online education has promoted education equity. We have to consider it under different situations.
en.humanrights.cn: Apart from online education, we need to use information technology in many other cases in our lives during the pandemic prevention and control such as the body temperature monitoring system in the subway, the online medical consultation platform, Health Kit as well as communication big data, etc. Behind these new technologies or new platforms, how should we guarantee human rights protection?
Xu Yao: This is very important and has drawn many scholars' attention. In general, the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, at this time reflects how our country responds to large-scale social risks. The most prominent characteristic of the risk is its uncertainty. I have no idea if people around me carry the coronavirus when I go out, whether I will contract the virus, where I should get treatment if I am infected and what consequences might be.
How do we manage this risk that we face? We have two possible options, the first one is not to go outside. It will eliminate the possibility of getting infected by physical isolation. But this does not mean that we can put our needs aside. Sometimes we have to go out. What should we do when we go outside? Then the big data for traveling and the pandemic maps that we just talked about come in handy.
These big data and other new technologies provide us with more information about our surroundings that we are eager to know. They are able to help us make informed decisions to better protect ourselves when we go out.
If all of us can share our information or relevant cases, we can through a convenient platform get a clear sense of the level of risks around us, the distribution of risks, the extent to which the risks deteriorate, what it was like in the past and what the future situation might be. We can make use of the information to keep uncertainties down thus lowering the risk of getting infected when we go out. During the prevention and control of coronavirus, the most essential function of big data in protecting human rights is lowering the risk of compromising people's various human rights.
en.humanrights.cn: During the pandemic, people need the support offered by big data wherever they go. Some worry that the collection of personal information constitutes a violation of citizens' privacy. What do you make of that?
Xu Yao: There are two sides to every coin. So is also information technology. While it brings us convenience, it may do harm to us in some other way. The right to privacy that you just mentioned is one example. There are some other problems as well. For instance, some elderly people may find smartphones difficult to use, it creates inconvenience for them instead.
First, we need to define the social context in which we have to surrender part of the right to privacy. Facing a public crisis like this pandemic that is highly dangerous and difficult to control. I think it is understandable that a portion of people's right to privacy are surrendered for the sake of a much higher pursuit than the right to privacy. We have other rights such as the right to life. If there is no guarantee of the right to life, how can we protect the right to privacy? When our society is highly chaotic uncertain with a high risk of infection, individuals' right to privacy may be less urgent than it is in other circumstances. So, in the process of the prevention and control of the virus, it is helpful for us to surrender a portion of our right to privacy in order to safeguard other rights, maintain the normal functioning of society as a whole and carry out targeted prevention and control measures.
But if life returns to normal, we may not choose to surrender the right because everybody wants to keep something in their hearts beyond the reach of other people. It is their own secret garden.
At the same time, another question is how should we understand the impact of information technology or artificial intelligence on our society as a whole. If we solely focus on protecting all sorts of rights and shy away from new technologies to evade possible problems what could be achieved, then we may go against the general trend of human history. But it's not enough to just emphasize this aspect alone. We will have to adopt other legal and political instruments to remedy the possible loopholes and harms.
en.humanrights.cn: What do you think are the most critical elements that allow information technology to play a pivotal role in the prevention and control of the coronavirus?
Xu Yao: Generally speaking, our nation's use of big data and information technology as part of the efforts to deal with the pandemic is a successful example. We have been able to curb the deterioration of the epidemic in such a large country within a short period of time. I think that this is something to be proud of.
As for the aspects that play the most pivotal role, the first one is the solid foundation of internet or information technology. More and more people use smartphones and intelligent devices. Our internet speed is fast, which is a precondition for us to apply big data to deal with the crisis.
The second is that we have a number of leading internet enterprises which are capable to react and innovate quickly.
The third aspect that cannot be ignored is our government. Our central government is highly capable of coordination. It is able to gather huge amounts of resources to serve its goals when dealing with problems. Our government has been emphasizing the people-centered philosophy. This concept differs from those of other countries. Our government can withstand enormous pressure and opprobrium from the international community. We put all our resources into safeguarding people's rights to life and health.
Fourth, this has something to do with the advantage of China's traditional culture such as mutual trust between the government and the people. Many researchers suggest that the Chinese people trust the government. The trust is likely to increase after this crisis. It's very different. In the countries where the level of mutual trust between the people and the government is low. Instead of focusing on how to work together to deal with problems, they take to the streets and vandalize to express resentment.
Additionally, Chinese citizens have always exhibited generosity and understanding in a crisis. For example, when we are put in quarantine for 14 days from a trip, we think "I should be responsible for other people so I will not go out for the sake of other people". We have this sense of collective responsibility. It is not recognized by some people in the countries that prioritize the right to liberty.
We work together to minimize the harm of the pandemic and use information technology which brings unprecedented conveniences to tackle the problems at hand. It is because of those elements that we have contained the spread of the virus.
en.humanrights.cn: Thank you very much, Mr Xu for sharing your thoughts with us today.
en.humanrights.cn: The pandemic keeps us apart yet network-based information technology brings us closer. In this battle against the pandemic, the use of network-based information technology has effectively improved the efficiency of organization and administration as we work to prevent and control the pandemic and lowered the risks to human rights violation. With the targeted assistance mechanism in place, students from poor families can access temporary learning terminals and enjoy a reduction of data fees. In this way, we have lived up to the education philosophy of "leave no kid behind" and effectively protected their right to education.
We are also seeing more and more special passageways and reminder signs set up for elderly people, people with no WeChat accounts or whose phone is running out of battery or who do not know how to get a health code. At the same time, the government has urged efforts to retain traditional service modes and made considerable arrangements to dispatch additional personnel, set up institutions and allocates funds so that more people can have easy access to free and equal public digital services.
In the post-pandemic era, we will continue our discussion about how to use network-based information technology to fight COVID-19 in a proactive, proper and law-based manner. Thank you for watching. See you in our next episode.
