China develops AI surveillance systems in minority languages
An Australian think tank reported that China is developing AI surveillance systems in ethnic minority languages including Korean, Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian to expand state monitoring and control of communications. The National Key Laboratory at Minzu University, established by China's Ministry of Education, collects minority-language data to build public opinion monitoring systems that could be exported internationally.
What happened
The Chinese government is developing large language model-based public opinion analysis systems for Korean, Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian to expand state surveillance and control, according to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published in December 2025.
The National Key Laboratory of Ethnic Language Intelligent Analysis and Security Governance at Minzu University of China, established by China's Ministry of Education, is a key driver of the effort. The lab collects internet data from regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, extracting meaning from text, audio, video and emojis to build monitoring and sentiment analysis technology.
Reported impact
The systems are designed to increase the state's ability to monitor and control communications in minority languages. ASPI noted that minority languages have long represented a blind spot for Chinese state surveillance, and commercial AI models have not adequately served this purpose.
ASPI said Chinese-developed models could be exported to countries participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative, potentially affecting Korean-language users outside China and enabling Chinese companies to systematically violate economic rights of vulnerable groups abroad.
Index analysis
ASPI's report describes how the CCP has expanded use of advanced AI systems between 2023 and 2025 across multimodal censorship, integration into criminal-justice systems, industrialisation of online information control, and AI-enabled platforms operated by Chinese companies abroad.
The report reveals that the CCP has created market-based mechanisms to encourage private innovation in AI-enabled censorship technology, making it easier and cheaper for companies to comply with censorship mandates.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.