Flies on the Great Wall: How Insiders Siphon from China’s Domestic Surveillance Apparatus

Flies on the Great Wall: How Insiders Siphon from China’s Domestic Surveillance Apparatus

Under Xi Jinping, the CCP has passed a series of interrelated laws which effectively mandate that Chinese technology companies collect data to support China’s state intelligence apparatus as well as cooperate with the CCP’s censorship efforts. Chinese-based technology companies as well as foreign technology companies doing business in China have specific obligations under this legal regime to provide access to data and support for the CCP’s intelligence-gathering efforts. Within China, there is also a significant lack of social and economic mobility for citizens. As a result, insiders within Chinese technology companies have both the motivation and the access to siphon large amounts of user data off and sell it on black and gray area data markets.