The panopticon in everyday spaces: surveillance policies in North Korea and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)

North Korea and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) represent two of the most extreme contemporary manifestations of surveillance. North Korea maintains a pervasive system of mutual observation and reporting, most notably through inminban (neighborhood watch units), weekly ‘self-criticism and mutual criticism sessions,’ and compulsory rituals of loyalty to Kim Jong Un. Recently, it has increased its reliance on digital technologies for surveillance purposes. In contrast, China implements ethnically targeted surveillance in the XUAR, combining technologically advanced and traditional methods, such as the grid-style management system, AI-driven predictive policing, the ‘Becoming Family’ campaign and the fanghuiju work teams. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of panopticism, Ejdus’s concept of ontic space, and critical geopolitics, this study develops a novel, multi-scalar conceptual framework to interrogate how surveillance practices shape and reshape the mundane realm of everyday life in extreme authoritarian contexts. Despite significant differences in leadership structures, levels of state capacity, and degrees of technological sophistication, both regimes exhibit notable similarities in the spatialisation of surveillance and obedience, aiming to manifest their omnipresence in everyday spaces. The inscription of authoritarian authority into spatial structures and processes, which this study conceptualises as ‘authoritarian projection’, disrupts the organic bond between everyday life and space. Households, streets, and transportation infrastructures are transformed into spaces where the regime inscribes its authority, dissolves alternative forms of belonging, and actively orchestrates how individuals move, interact, and even imagine themselves. Through its comparative and multi-scalar approach, this study expands the understanding of the spatial and ontological dimensions of authoritarian power.