China's surveillance system tracks foreign journalists using facial recognition, travel data

Deutsche Welle (DW) obtained test data from China's police system that shows police can integrate high-speed rail seat numbers, facial recognition, and mobile payment records to track the movements of foreign journalists in real-time. The leaked backend even marked specific journalists as 'trackable,' and the system would automatically send alerts to the police once they entered a jurisdiction.

According to this leaked data, a cybersecurity researcher named 'NetAskari' accidentally accessed a test version of a surveillance system designed by the Zhangjiakou Municipal Public Security Bureau in Hebei Province for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics when they clicked on an unprotected Chinese web control panel. This system has now been upgraded from a street surveillance camera network to a 'stereoscopic profile' system that integrates data from multiple sensors and operates around the clock.

The leaked database shows that the system no longer relies solely on intersection surveillance cameras but precisely records the carriage and seat numbers of targets when they travel on high-speed rail. This means that individuals' daily commutes in non-restricted areas are synchronized and recorded, including their transportation, consumption, and movement data, such as gasoline consumption, daily spending locations, and whether they visited specific petitioning areas.

Facial recognition at ski resorts directly linked to police; algorithms automatically generate relationship network maps.

This surveillance mechanism also extends to non-military or civilian leisure locations. The researcher discovered that the system integrates the facial recognition system at the ticket gates of local ski resorts in Zhangjiakou. The skiing trajectories of monitored individuals and the personal information of their accompanying friends and relatives are automatically marked and used to generate route maps.

Unlike traditional manual tailing that requires a large police presence, this system is equipped with relationship modeling algorithms. The system automatically analyzes footage from surveillance cameras and, based on the frequency of interactions between targets in front of the camera, call records, and shared ride information, automatically generates complex relationship network maps, revealing who knows whom and the time they spent together.

Focus on Five Eyes journalists; electronic surveillance replaces traditional manual surveillance.

This system primarily monitors citizens of 'Five Eyes' countries (including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada). The interviewed researcher revealed that this system renders the traditional cat-and-mouse game of plainclothes police ineffective for foreign journalists visiting sensitive areas. As the system constantly tracks mobile payment, ticket purchase records, and social networks, security departments can anticipate journalists' itineraries and even privately pressure relevant individuals before they meet specific interviewees.

According to public bidding and patent data, Hisense Group applied for a patent for such relationship models in 2019. The Putuo Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau also purchased a similar 'Stereoscopic Profile System' for $200,000 (approximately NT$6.33 million) in 2025. The security vulnerability of the test web page has now been closed by the Chinese side, but the technological upgrades and deployment of related systems in public security bureaus across various provinces and cities are still ongoing.