China's Surveillance System Tracks Foreigners and Journalists
A security researcher reportedly discovered an unsecured Chinese police control panel managing a surveillance system that tracks foreigners, including journalists, using facial recognition, visa data, and travel records. The system integrates data from cameras, payment transactions, and ticketing apps to monitor movements, relationships, and locations of foreign nationals and specific groups including citizens of Five Eyes countries.
What happened
An independent cybersecurity researcher identified as NetAskari discovered an unsecured Chinese police control panel for a Zhangjiakou Public Security Bureau tracking system. The researcher found a tab labeled 'journalist file query' that displayed a database containing passport photos, private phone numbers, visa information, and birthdates of all foreign journalists stationed in Beijing around 2021.
The system integrates facial recognition data from ski slopes, train boarding records with specific seat numbers, and daily activities including fuel consumption, shopping locations, and visits to petition areas. Data includes facial recognition footage from access gates and surveillance cameras, visa records, real-time payment transactions, and ticketing app information.
Reported impact
Foreign journalists, including those from Five Eyes countries (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada), are subject to disproportionate surveillance and real-time tracking tags. Some foreign journalists are marked as 'traceable,' triggering automatic police alerts when they enter monitored areas.
The system compromises independent reporting by enabling authorities to predict journalist movements through payment and ticket records, and to identify and contact sources before journalists can conduct undercover investigations. Traditional clandestine reporting methods have become ineffective.
Index analysis
The system uses relationship mapping algorithms to visualize social networks based on monitoring footage interaction frequency, determining who knows whom and duration of contact. It can filter individuals by specific criteria such as nationality, workplace relationships, and co-appearance in photos.
Citizens of Five Eyes nations, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Uyghurs, escapees, foreign journalists, tourists, and residents of Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan are separately categorized and analyzed within the platform.
Governance controls
The researcher noted that while Western democracies face similar surveillance technology misuse concerns, they have mechanisms for power balancing and public debate. In China, any state security matter allows police and security agencies broad discretion with minimal substantive control.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.