Leak: ‘China Communists Infiltrate Governments, Companies Worldwide’
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – A significant leak shows that at least nearly two million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members work worldwide, including in U.S. government agencies and the biggest companies, Australian media reported Sunday.
Sky News Australian television and The Australian newspaper said the leak of official membership records — the first of its kind in the world — exposed details of 1.95 million CCP members, including their position, birth date, and ethnicity.
The records also showed that the CCP infiltrated the U.S., Australian, and British consulates in Shanghai, the outlets said.
That reportedly happened through a government-run recruitment agency placing advisers into Western embassies for more than a decade.
Besides background information about the CCP members, mainly from Shanghai, details also emerged about 79,000 Communist Party branches, many of them inside companies.
The breach was lifting the lid on how the CCP operates under its Chairman Xi Jinping, who was declared China’s president for life. China’s National People’s Congress removed the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency in 2018.
WESTERN COMPANIES
However, the breach is “also going to embarrass some global companies,” argued Sky News host Sharri Markson.
The companies, she suggested, ”appear to have no plan in place to protect their intellectual property from theft. From economic espionage.”
“Communist Party branches have been set up inside western companies, allowing the infiltration of those companies by CCP members – who, if called on, are answerable directly to the Communist Party, to the Chairman, the president himself,” Markson said.
The data revealed Sunday was reportedly extracted from a Shanghai internet server by Chinese dissidents in April 2016. The whistleblowers were using it for counter-intelligence purposes, sources said.
It was then leaked in mid-September to the newly-formed international bi-partisan group, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. That group comprises 150 legislators around the world.
“It was then provided to an international consortium of four media organizations, The Australian, The Sunday Mail in the UK, De Standaard in Belgium, and a Swedish editor, “ explained Markson.
MORE LEAKS
Ironically, news emerged earlier this year that more than 2 million people worldwide had their personal details harvested by Chinese intelligence services. The leak was made public in September by an Australian cybersecurity consultancy.
The list included prominent political figures like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and their families.
Business leaders such as Ratan Tata, American military members of all ranks, senior diplomats, academics, celebrities, ordinary people, and even gangsters were also on the list.
The information was taken mostly from open sources like social media profiles by a Chinese big-data harvesting company called Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Information Technology.
China is also rapidly extending domestic surveillance, impacting critics, ethnic groups and other minorities, including Christians, Worthy News established.
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.