China derives data from Western social media to 'equip' military & govt agencies: Report

A recent report revealed that China is using Western social media to provide information about foreign targets to its military and police. This was concluded following a review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts, and company registrations, ANI reported citing The Washington Post. According to the new report, China has a statewide network of data surveillance services that have been created over the last decade and are used domestically to alert officials to politically sensitive information on the internet.

A software collects data on foreign targets from sources including Twitter, Facebook, and other Western social media in addition to domestic Internet users and media. Chinese organisations including state media, propaganda departments, police, military, and cyber regulators are purchasing new or more advanced systems to collect data, according to the documents obtained by the Washington-based publication. The report claimed that the Chinese state media mines social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to compile a database of foreign journalists as well as academicians. 

A Beijing police intelligence programme analyses Western information on Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to the report. It also collects Uyghur language content from across the world. According to a Beijing-based analyst who works for a unit reporting to China's Central Propaganda Department, "We can now understand better the underground network of anti-China personnel," reported The Washington Post.

The report claimed that the unit was once tasked with generating a data analysis on how unfavourable news about Beijing's senior leadership spreads on Twitter, including profiles of specific academics, politicians, and journalists. Mareike Ohlberg, a senior scholar at the German Marshall Fund, stated that are now realigning part of that effort outward and it's definitely alarming looking at the huge numbers and sheer magnitude that this has taken inside China. "It clearly demonstrates that they now believe it is their obligation to defend China internationally and to fight the public opinion war," she added as per The Washington Post report.

Chinese espionage operations in US at an all-time high: Report

Meanwhile, a report published last month suggested that Chinese espionage operations in the United States are at an all-time high, with the country recently extraditing a high-ranking Chinese spy from Europe in November. Yanjun Xu, Deputy Director of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), was primarily responsible for external intelligence. It is the first time that a high-ranking official has been extradited to the United States for trial, ANI reported citing The HK post.

(With inputs from ANI)

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