By Zoila Palma: A former Chinese government official now living in the United States says he is being relentlessly pursued by Beijing through an expansive global surveillance apparatus powered in part by U.S.-made technology, according to a months-long investigation by The Associated Press.
Li Chuanliang, a retired vice mayor and longtime Communist Party member, fled China after learning he was under investigation and now claims Chinese authorities continue to monitor, intimidate and punish him and his family across borders.
Li’s ordeal began in 2020 while he was recovering from cancer in South Korea, when he was warned not to return to China.
After being photographed by a stranger and fearing deportation, he fled to the United States and applied for asylum.
Despite his relocation, Li says Chinese authorities tracked his communications, froze his assets and used facial recognition and police databases to identify and detain more than 40 of his relatives and associates, including his pregnant daughter. Several former colleagues died in detention, while Li says he was followed and threatened in multiple U.S. states.
The AP investigation found that China’s global manhunt relies heavily on sophisticated surveillance systems, some originating from Silicon Valley firms such as IBM, Oracle and Microsoft.
Leaked emails, procurement records and internal presentations show these tools were sold to Chinese police and disciplinary agencies and used to analyze financial records, travel, communications and family networks. While Beijing describes the effort as part of its anti-corruption campaign, critics say the technology has been weaponized to silence dissent and force the return of perceived political enemies under operations known as “Fox Hunt” and “Sky Net.”
Li denies corruption charges totaling roughly $435 million, arguing he is being targeted for exposing corruption within local government and later criticizing China’s political system from abroad.
Legal documents, interviews with lawyers and thousands of pages of records reviewed by AP support key aspects of his account, including claims of coerced confessions, blocked access to evidence and altered legal files. U.S. authorities have warned that China’s overseas operations threaten national sovereignty, and the FBI has labeled efforts to harass individuals on U.S. soil “unacceptable,” though Li’s asylum case remains unresolved.
Now largely isolated and cut off from legal representation and family, Li has turned to public platforms to continue speaking out.
The post International News: Chinese whistleblower in U.S. says Beijing using American surveillance tech to hunt him appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Zoila Palma: A former Chinese government official now living in the United States says he is being relentlessly pursued by Beijing through an expansive global surveillance apparatus powered in part by U.S.-made technology, according to a months-long investigation by The Associated Press. Li Chuanliang, a retired vice mayor and longtime Communist Party member, fled China
The post International News: Chinese whistleblower in U.S. says Beijing using American surveillance tech to hunt him appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
