Skynet, launched in 2005, and its 2015 expansion Sharp Eyes (Xueliang), are central-government-mandated camera networks combining facial recognition and licence plate recognition, built by China's National Development and Reform Commission with a stated goal of "100%" video coverage of public areas by 2020. Some Sharp Eyes deployments reportedly extend into integration with home television set-top boxes, letting residents view local camera feeds directly, which specialist researchers have read as also functioning as a form of community social pressure alongside its stated crime-prevention purpose.

Independent verification of scale and capability is inherently limited by China's information environment: there's no equivalent of a UK regulator's report or a US state audit to draw on. What's presented on the tracker and here is as reported by specialist surveillance-industry researchers and academic institutions studying Chinese state capacity from outside the country, not confirmed by Chinese government disclosure, and that distinction is worth keeping in mind when reading any specific figure attached to it.