Drawing on open source data including satellite imagery, Chinese government documents, official statistics and a range of authoritative reports and academic studies, the Xinjiang Data Project documents the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing program of human rights abuses and tech-enhanced authoritarianism in Xinjiang, and explores its global implications.
This is a case study in repressive technology, and the details are as fascinating as they are frightening. The source is an Australian think tank that does serious scholarship.
Investigators reverse engineerered a phone app distributed by China’s MInistry of State Security. The app monitors all kinds of personal, legal activities, all in the name of fighting “terrorism.”
Human Rights Watch concludes
These mass surveillance systems remain unchallenged in China because there are few meaningful checks on government powers. The Ministry of Public Security is accountable to no one except to the CCP—it is not required to report surveillance activities to any other government agency, or to publicly disclose this information. It is all but impossible for people to know what personal information the government collects, and how the government uses, shares, or stores their data.
Source: The Xinjiang Data Project
