The glasses are being used to check people and registration plates against a centralized "blacklist" that the government compiles. Along with the facial recognition glasses, the government is also using facial scanners to monitor those entering the venue for the meeting.

Many are concerned with the growing use of ever-more sophisticated surveillance technology throughout China and many worry that the blacklist will contain not only criminals, but political dissidents, journalists and human rights activists as well. "(China's) leadership once felt a degree of trepidation over the advancement of the internet and communication technologies," David Bandurski, co-director of the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, told Reuters. "It now sees them as absolutely indispensable tools of social and political control."