Amid the ongoing India-China border face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Chinese government is keeping an eye over 10,000 Indian individuals and organizations in its global database of “foreign targets,” an investigative report by the Indian Express revealed.
Shenzhen-based Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Ltd is monitoring in real-time President Kovind, Prime Minister Modi, Congress interim-president Sonia Gandhi, several cabinet ministers and chief ministers, including their families, the report read.
Not only several of these prominent individuals in political and official establishments, scientists, academicians, journalists, actors, sportspersons, religious figures and activists are also being monitored.
“Every country does this in one way or the other, that’s the job of foreign intelligence. But using big data science and technology, Beijing has, clearly, taken it to the next level,” said Robert Potter, Canberra-based cybersecurity, technology and data expert told the Indian Express.
Records show that Zhenhua was registered as a company in April 2018 and set up 20 processing centers across countries and regions. It counts the Chinese government and military among its clients.
This assumes significance when an increasingly assertive China is locked in a simmering standoff with India along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and is pushing against many of its neighbors in the region and beyond. Indeed, Zhenhua works with Chinese intelligence, military and security agencies.