Part 1 of a meandering conversation between Ahmed and Megha Rajagopalan, BuzzFeed News' China bureau chief and Asia correspondent, about surveillance and censorship in China - the high-tech police state they've built, WeChat and other tech companies, Chinese memes, the effect it's having on other south Asian countries, as well as comparisons and contrasts to Arab states. You can find Megha on Twitter @Meghara: https://twitter.com/meghara And you should also check out her reporting on the issues mentioned at Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/meghara Listen to her Oslo Freedom Forum talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03v0jc88Qo AP News article mentioned on Uighur fighting in Syria: https://apnews.com/79d6a427b26f4eeab226571956dd256e BBC on facial recognition https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-china-42248056/in-your-face-china-s-all-seeing-state Economist profile: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/05/31/china-has-turned-xinjiang-into-a-police-state-like-no-other