The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a long track record of exploring big data analytics and cloud computing-based technologies to track, stalk, monitor, and confine the personal freedom of Falun Gong practitioners, according to reports on Minghui.org.
The communist regime has fixed electronic global positioning and tracking devices on cars, bicycles, mobile phones, and even in pockets of Falun Gong practitioners, reported Minghui.
Other monitoring measures include the installation of surveillance cameras around Falun Gong practitioners’ homes; personal data collection of faces, fingerprints, gait, and voices; denying them access to passports; and prohibiting them from leaving China.
An information platform for Falun Gong practitioners, Minghui has published reports on the CCP’s suppression of Falun Gong in China, exposing the various abhorrent persecution means imposed by the CCP on Falun Gong practitioners, such as random harassment, stalking, detaining, arresting, torturing, and even killing them for organs.
Wu Shaoping, a former human rights lawyer in China now residing in the United States, said that the CCP has imposed “long-term monitoring” of all those it deems “a threat” to its ruling, including dissidents, activists, ethnic minorities, and Falun Gong practitioners.
“The CCP aims to monitor every move of these people at all times, not only tracking their physical actions but also monitoring their phones, networks, and everything else,” said Mr. Wu in a recent interview with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times.
A Chinese lawyer who chooses to stay anonymous for fear of the regime’s retaliation blasted the CCP’s monitoring as “illegal.” Falun Gong practitioners in China are staying in a “different form of prisons,” according to the lawyer.
Positioning and Tracking Devices on Transport Vehicles
Electronic devices to track and position Falun Gong practitioners are reportedly found fixed to their vehicles, mobile phones, and even in pockets of their clothing.
On Aug. 10, 2022, 64-year-old Zhang Ming, a Falun Gong practitioner of Dandong City, China’s northeastern Liaoning Province, was abducted by five local police in front of his own home. Minghui reported that one of the police officers told him that they knew his whereabouts because they had installed a tracking device on his bike.
In September 2022, three Falun Gong practitioners from Zhucheng, China’s eastern Shandong Province, found their electric scooters in a “no power” state and couldn’t be started. They took the scooters to a repair shop for maintenance.
The repair technician discovered that a small magnetic tracking device had been installed beneath the rear seat of all three scooters.
In the same month, police in Gaomi City, Shandong Province, used a similar tracking device to follow Falun Gong practitioners and abducted multiple of them.
In 2019, in China’s southern city of Shenzhen, Li Yuanqiang, a local Falun Gong practitioner, when washing his car, discovered that a tracking device had been installed underneath his private car.
In May and June 2015, multiple Falun Gong practitioners in Enping City, Guangdong Province, reportedly found tracking devices on their cars, bicycles, and electric mopeds.
In September 2015, a Falun Gong practitioner in Yantai, China’s eastern Shandong Province, found a global positioning system attached to the rear of his car near the fuel tank.
In 2004, a Falun Gong practitioner accidentally found a small electronic device the size of a little fingernail in a pocket of his jacket, which he suspected to be a tapping or tracking device. Minghui issued a safety warning to Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Forced Electronic Bracelets on Bodies of Falun Gong Practitioners
Falun Gong practitioners are reportedly forced to wear monitoring bracelets even when they stay at home.
In the second half of 2021, Si Deli, a former artist and associate professor at a museum in Xinyang City, China’s central Henan Province, was forced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet by the local 610 Office staff.
Mr. Si has suffered from being abducted numerous times since the CCP began its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, with his home being raided by local police and his properties confiscated.
He was detained in forced labor camps three times and imprisoned three times, with a total of over 17 years locked down in Chinese prisons and detention centers. He was released in 2021 after serving a full three-and-half-year imprisonment, but the local 610 Office forced an electronic device on him, locked it, and threatened to “put him in trouble” if he removed the device.
Shi Qiaoyun, a 79-year-old Falun Gong practitioner in Xiangtan County, China’s southern Hunan Province, was forced to wear an electric monitoring watch from May 26 to Aug. 25, 2020. She was deprived of most of her social welfare by the local 610 Office and was given only $14 a month to live on. Local police and government officials kept harassing her and raiding her house. She died of malnutrition on June 23, 2022.
In August 2015, Lui Hongqun and Peng Yueying, Falun Gong practitioners in Renshou County, China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, were forced to wear an electronic tracking device every day. Local police threatened to imprison them if they removed the device.
The 610 Office is a secretive “extra-legal” agency that was set up in 1999 to carry out orders from the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to “eradicate” Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice consisting of meditative exercises and moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Due to its significant health benefits, Falun Gong was very popular in the 1990s after it was spread to the public. It was estimated that about 70 million to 100 million were practicing Falun Gong by the end of the decade.
Human Rights Watch said that the Chinese regime’s big data and police cloud systems “violate privacy” and that “China has no enforceable protections for privacy rights against state surveillance.”
“The police do not have to obtain any sort of court order to conduct surveillance, or provide any evidence that the people whose data they are collecting are associated with or involved in criminal activity. Police bureaus are not required to report surveillance activities to any other government agency or to publicly disclose this information. In practice, there are no effective privacy protections against government surveillance,” the human rights group said in 2017.
Other Monitoring Measures
The CCP has been engaging in various monitoring measures to restrict the freedom of Falun Gong practitioners, according to Minghui.
In Chaoyang City, China’s northern Liaoning Province, the local judicial bureau records videos, collects fingerprints, and conducts audio recordings of Falun Gong practitioners, utilizing big data techniques such as facial, gait, and voice recognition. The authorities force Falun Gong practitioners to use a mobile phone, provided by the local authorities, which is connected to their system. Falun Gong adherents are not allowed to leave the local area and are required to visit the local judicial bureau to report their whereabouts at least once a month, handing in a written statement with their fingerprints.
At the end of 2021, the local judicial authorities upgraded the mobile phone system, which now displays detailed personal information such as gender and age. They also force Falun Gong practitioners to send a photo of themselves, taken on the day, via the mobile phone. In case of inspections by higher authorities or on what the judicial office deems sensitive days, both the judicial office and local police force Falun Gong practitioners to send their photos twice a day and visit their homes for a so-called “follow-up visit.”
Zhou Xiangyang, a Falun Gong practitioner working in China’s eastern Tianjin City, was released in 2022 after serving seven years of imprisonment. He returned to his parents’ home in Matuo Village, Changli County, Hebei Province in central China.
This is not the first time he has been imprisoned for his belief in Falun Gong. In 2004, he was sentenced to nine years imprisonment. Before that, from 1999 on, he was detained in labor camps multiple times for years. He suffered inhumane torture in labor camps and prisons.
Mr. Zhou was tortured so badly again while he was imprisoned in Tianjin Binhai Prison that he weighed less than 90 pounds when he was freed in 2022. He came to his parents’ place for help and care.
Upon Mr. Zhou’s arrival, the local authorities spent over $22,000 to install 12 surveillance cameras around his parents’ home and near the homes of his elder brother and his sister-in-law’s parents.
The village authorities also deployed three to four villagers at the village entrance to prevent Mr. Zhou from leaving and to block visitors from meeting Mr. Zhou.
Cai Qiaoling, a Falun Gong practitioner in Kaifeng City, China’s central Henan Province, applied for a passport twice in January 2023 and was denied. On Aug. 2, the local Chinese immigration authorities notified Ms. Cai that she had been banned from leaving the country. Afterward, a surveillance camera was installed near her home. She has been living under surveillance.
Stop Selling Any Chips to CCP: Former Chinese Lawyers
According to Minghui, from January to October 2023, 1,008 Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to imprisonment; from January to September, 166 practitioners were persecuted to death. Minghui claims that the reported numbers are far less than the actual numbers due to the CCP’s censorship.
Liang Shaohua, a former Chinese lawyer now living in the United States, said that it is illegal for the CCP to abduct, detain, sue, or torture Falun Gong practitioners in prisons and that people who are involved in these crimes are to be held accountable.
“The CCP controls the country just like what is depicted in George Orwell’s novel ‘1984,’” Mr. Liang said in a recent interview with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times.
He said that Falun Gong is a “very peaceful belief” and people who follow the moral teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance shouldn’t be persecuted.
Mr. Wu Shaoping calls on the U.S. government to ban all sales of chips to China.
“Chips that are not regarded as high-end ones are sufficient to meet the CCP’s needs for these monitoring devices and AI technology. The U.S. should comprehensively prohibit the supply of chips to China, including both high-end and low-end chips,” suggested Mr. Wu.
Qiao Song, Li Jiesi, and Frank Fang contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
