Washington, May 25: A startling report has drawn attention to China’s ranking among countries with limited press freedom. According to the report, the Chinese Communist Party has developed an extensive surveillance system that tracks the real-time location, activities, and social connections of foreign nationals in the country.
New Tang Dynasty Television cited an analysis from the cybersecurity research organization NetSecurity, revealing a system named the “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel.” This system integrates security cameras, facial recognition technology, visa records, and mobile data to monitor the activities of foreign citizens. Notably, foreign journalists and certain “sensitive individuals” are placed on a special watch list.
The database reportedly includes passport numbers, birth dates, nationalities, employers, Chinese mobile numbers, and other personal information. It also tracks individuals’ social relationships and movement patterns. The report claims that millions of surveillance cameras are operational in China, monitoring people’s activities on a large scale.
Mary Mann, writing for NTD, noted that the platform focuses on specific groups, including citizens from the “Five Eyes” alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States). This system closely monitors the distribution of these citizens in major Chinese cities, down to the neighborhood block level.
Due to the CCP’s extensive surveillance network, monitoring foreign visits has significantly increased. The database contains files with photos, countries, employers, names in both English and Chinese, birth dates, citizenship, passport numbers, and Chinese mobile numbers.
Mann referenced a report by British Daily journalist Sophia Yan, stating, “You can see who knows each other, who are classmates, who are colleagues, if they live in the same neighborhood, if they have been seen together on camera.” Sophia Yan found her personal profile in this database.
In China, there is now one monitoring device for every two citizens, supported by a surveillance network of over 700 million cameras. In addition to monitoring income, the CCP has also barred numerous independent media from entering the country.
Mann highlighted that many American journalists covering Trump’s visit were denied visas by the CCP. Those blocked included The Epoch Times’ White House reporter Travis Gilmore, NTD Television reporter Mari Otsu, and photojournalist Lei Chen.
The report indicates that China imprisons 116 media professionals, making it the country with the highest number of journalists in jail worldwide. It ranks just above North Korea and Eritrea as the third worst country in the World Press Freedom Index.
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