TIKTOK USED TO MONITOR LOCATION OF AMERICAN CITIZENS
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, planned to use the popular social media app to monitor the location of at least two U.S. citizens without their knowledge or consent. The company's Internal Audit and Risk Control department conducts investigations into potential misconduct by current and former ByteDance employees. But in at least two cases, it also sought to collect TikTok data about the location of a U.S. citizen who had never worked for the company. Although it is unclear whether data about Americans was actually collected, the plan was for the team behind the monitoring project to obtain location information from their devices. The Internal Audit team is led by Beijing-based executive Song Ye, who reports directly to ByteDance cofounder and CEO Rubo Liang. (Forbes, October 20, 2022)
XI FINISHES OFF THE YOUTH LEAGUE FACTION
At the recent 20th Party Congress, Xi Jinping stacked the party's new leadership with his allies and protégés, paving the way for him to rule unchallenged. The three most glaring omissions from China's new leadership lineup, which was unveiled at the Congress, are all members of the once-powerful Youth League faction. Premier Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Wang Yang, both 67, and Vice Premier Han Zheng, 68, were all left off both the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee and the wider 205-member Central Committee. "The congress calls on all party members to acquire a deep understanding of the decisive significance of establishing comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the party Central Committee and in the party as a whole and establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought," said a resolution approved at the gathering's closing session. (Reuters, October 26, 2022)
THE NETHERLANDS UNCOVERS CHINA'S ILLEGAL "POLICE STATIONS"
Since 2018, China has opened at least two illegal "police stations" in the Netherlands, ostensibly offering diplomatic services to Chinese Dutch citizens while also working to silence Chinese dissidents. One target, Wang Jingyu, said that when he arrived in the Netherlands, China's police station in Rotterdam asked him "to go back to China to solve my problems," and urged him to consider his family. "These agencies are illegal," said a spokesman from the Dutch foreign ministry, adding that the government is investigating and taking "appropriate actions." In September, the Spanish organization Safeguard Defenders revealed that China has "established a series of overseas police ‘service stations' across five continents, but mainly in Europe. These provide administrative services, but have also been active in ‘covert and illegal policing.'" (Politico, October 26, 2022)
CHINA'S OPERATIVES REPATRIATING PEOPLE FROM THE U.S. AND CANADA
According to an unsealed U.S. federal indictment, Chinese operatives are coercing people in the U.S. and Canada to return to China to face criminal charges. The seven PRC nationals charged in the case work for China's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Their efforts were part of China's Operation Fox Hunt, a campaign to repatriate those charged with corruption and "to target and quiet dissidents," according David Vigneault, director of Canada's Security Intelligence Service. The filing describes a campaign of harassment and surveillance against a U.S. resident from China, and another Chinese national residing in Canada who was pressed against his will to return China to face charges. "We're talking about a foreign government threatening somebody based in Canada. Clearly, they think they can do this and get away with it," said Akshay Singh of the University of Ottawa. China operates three police stations in Toronto. (The Globe and Mail, October 27, 2022)
IRELAND CLOSES CHINA'S POLICE STATION IN DUBLIN
Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs has closed China's "police service station" in Dublin. The Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, which opened earlier this year, ostensibly to offer PRC nationals help with driver's license renewals, was identified as part of a worldwide network of more than fifty overseas Chinese law enforcement offices suppressing dissidents and working to "persuade" Chinese emigrants to return home to face criminal charges. According to Irish officials, China had not sought permission to set up the station. "The actions of all foreign states on Irish territory must be in compliance with international law and domestic law requirements. On this basis, the Department informed the Embassy that the office on Capel Street should close and cease operations," said a spokesman. (Irish Times, October 27, 2022)
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