China harvests masses of data on Western targets, documents show

[mountaineer]

China harvests masses of data on Western targets, documents show
By Cate Cadell
Yesterday at 5:13 p.m. EST

China is turning a major part of its internal Internet data surveillance network outward, mining Western social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets, according to a Washington Post review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts and company filings.

China maintains a countrywide network of government data surveillance services — called public opinion analysis software — that were developed over the past decade and are used domestically to warn officials of politically sensitive information online.

The software primarily targets China’s domestic Internet users and media, but a Washington Post review of bidding documents and contracts for over 300 Chinese government projects since the beginning of 2020 include orders for software designed to collect data on foreign targets from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and other Western social media. ...

Some of the Chinese government’s budgeting includes buying and maintaining foreign social media accounts on behalf of police and propaganda departments. ...Washington Post

[mountaineer]

Related Chinese social media news from two years ago, perhaps:   a Chinese student at a US university was jailed for 6 months in China for tweets he  posted while in the US.

Jan 23, 2020 - World
University of Minnesota student jailed in China over tweets
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian

Editor's note: After this article was published in January, the Chinese government removed the court case from their website. The document is available here.

A Chinese student at the University of Minnesota has been arrested in China and sentenced to six months in prison for tweets he posted while in the United States, according to a Chinese court document viewed by Axios. Some of the tweets contained images deemed to be unflattering portrayals of a "national leader."

Why it matters: The case represents a dramatic escalation of the Chinese government's attempts to shut down free speech abroad and a global expansion of a Chinese police campaign to track down Twitter users in China who posted content critical of the Chinese government. ...

Story at Axios

[Kamaji]

The Chinese communist party is becoming the enemy of humanity.  It's going to take another world war, I'm afraid, to dislodge them.

[berdie]

The Chinese communist party is becoming the enemy of humanity.  It's going to take another world war, I'm afraid, to dislodge them.

I hope that it never comes to that. In today's climate I'm not sure we would prevail.

[LegalAmerican]

The Chinese communist party is becoming the enemy of humanity.  It's going to take another world war, I'm afraid, to dislodge them.

And the bought demon-rats in congress always scream..RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA....
We know it is CHINA, CHINA, CHINA.