More than 10,000 organizations and individuals in India are being actively monitored under a surveillance program run by a technology company that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the report.
Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Limited, a Shenzhen-based technology company, is said to be monitoring its targets in real time.
Aside from President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian targets on the list include almost all other ministers and senior ministers in the Union, current and former heads of the armed forces, the Chief Justice, and the CAG. Furthermore, prominent industry giants such as Tata and Adani are also being tracked.
The list includes bureaucrats, scientists, journalists, actors and even India’s top white-collar criminals, according to the report.
Amid the heated standoff at the border, these revelations have the potential to further sour India’s ties with China.
Revelations galore
The Indian Express said it obtained the information with the help of a “network of investigators from a source” with links to the Shenzhen-based company. According to the report, although the source wanted to remain anonymous in light of the risks involved, the data was passed on to a Vietnam academic who had previously worked in China.
The professor, in turn, made the data available to various publications around the world, such as The Indian Express, The Australian Financial Review, Il Foglio from Italy and The Daily Telegraph from London.
The Indian Express said it had sent inquiries on the matter to the Shenzhen firm, but received no response. The company has now taken down its website and its page is no longer accessible.
Sources at the Chinese embassy in Delhi denied the allegations, telling Indian Express that “China has not requested and will not request companies or individuals to collect or provide data, information and intelligence stored in the territories of other countries.”
These sources declined to comment on whether the Chinese Communist Party has any ties to the company in question. Available records, however, show that the company has established 20 processing centers in various locations around the globe, and that the Chinese government and PLA are its clients, according to the report.
Hybrid war
This data mining is considered part of a hybrid warfare, which essentially means using non-military means to gain dominance. According to the Indian Express report, in the words of the company itself, the means used in this type of war are: “information contamination, perception management and propaganda”.
The researchers used big data to extract information on Indian targets from the metadata in Zhenhua’s log files that were part of its Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB), according to the report. He added that OKIDB, with the help of cutting-edge tools, tracks targets without leaving any explicit footprints.
Targets in India are not the only ones in the company’s sights. Many important people and organizations in various other countries, including Australia, Britain and the US, are also being linked. Many from Japan, Canada, Germany and the United Arab Emirates are also among the targets of the operation.
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