I was in China recently and never once saw anything like this. VPN use is widespread and officially sanctioned in many cases (for businesses, colleges, etc.) and I have no idea what an “illegal app” would even be. It also doesn’t really make sense to assume that’s what’s going on in the video given the context. It looks like they’re on a train? Why would police go on a train to check everyone’s phones for illegal apps? Seems totally ridiculous.
EDIT: This is NOT "checking for illegal apps without a warrant". What's going on in the video (I'm pretty damn sure) is that police are checking people's covid passports, which is an ID setup in WeChat (WeChat is used for everything in China) that contains information on vaccination status and last test results. Under the zero covid rules, vaccinations and negative tests were required to travel on trains and other forms of transport, which is why the video is shot on a train/subway. More info on that here: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/asia/china-coronavirus-qr-code-intl-hnk/index.html
EDIT #2: Someone else brought up checking train tickets, and it could be that, but I still strongly suspect it was checking people's covid status during the zero covid period.
I was in China recently and never once saw anything like this. VPN use is widespread and officially sanctioned in many cases (for businesses, colleges, etc.) and I have no idea what an “illegal app” would even be. It also doesn’t really make sense to assume that’s what’s going on in the video given the context. It looks like they’re on a train? Why would police go on a train to check everyone’s phones for illegal apps? Seems totally ridiculous.
EDIT: This is NOT "checking for illegal apps without a warrant". What's going on in the video (I'm pretty damn sure) is that police are checking people's covid passports, which is an ID setup in WeChat (WeChat is used for everything in China) that contains information on vaccination status and last test results. Under the zero covid rules, vaccinations and negative tests were required to travel on trains and other forms of transport, which is why the video is shot on a train/subway. More info on that here: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/asia/china-coronavirus-qr-code-intl-hnk/index.html
EDIT #2: Someone else brought up checking train tickets, and it could be that, but I still strongly suspect it was checking people's covid status during the zero covid period.