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Angry bank customers who travelled to a city in central China attempting to retrieve their savings from troubled rural banks were stopped in their tracks by a common technology: a QR code. The QR code, which residents are required to have, is supposed to display one's health status, such as if they have COVID-19 or have been a close contact. In central Henan province, some Chinese people found that the health code was used to enforce crowd control. The incident has started a national debate on how a tool designed for public health has been appropriated by political forces to tamp down controversy. The issue started in April, when customers found that they could not access online banking services. They tried multiple times to report the banks and get their money back, but didn't get an answer. Thousands of people who had opened up an account with one of six rural banks scattered in neighbouring Henan and Anhui provinces started trying to withdraw their savings after media reports th