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Dake Kang

@dakekang.bsky.social

2.8K followers 550 following 150 posts

中文名：姜大翼｜AP Journalist in Beijing | 美联社北京分社的一位伟大时代的记录者｜你可以用微信联系我（dakekang) 或者电报, Signal, WhatsApp (+1 201 937 9797). 邮箱: [email protected]

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

1/THREAD: @AP has published our investigation into how US tech firms enabled China’s digital police state. We obtained multiple, massive leaks of internal and classified Chinese government and corporate documents running into the tens of thousands:
apnews.com/article/chin...

Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show

U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.

apnews.com

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 6h

A horrifying must-read from my colleague Kristen Gelineau on the starvation that has gripped parts of Myanmar after the dismantling of USAID.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 1d

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted “no one has died” as a result of U.S. foreign aid cuts. In Myanmar, the grieving father of a 2-year-old boy who died after their food rations were cut calls such claims a lie.

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

bit.ly

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 8d

I was on @AmanpourCoPBS tonight, discussing the role of American tech firms in China’s surveillance state with @hari. Grateful for the chance to speak to @CNN and @PBS’s audience about our story.

Watch the full interview here: youtu.be/nRG032PB7m0?...

How U.S. Tech Created China’s Police State | Amanpour and Company

YouTube video by Amanpour and Company

youtu.be

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 19d

Hello everyone, I am now also on Substack. Bit of an experiment for me, but I suspect people who follow me might like that format better: substack.com/@dakekang

Dake Kang | Substack

Investigative journalist in Beijing

substack.com

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Reposted by Dake Kang

David Rising @davidrising.bsky.social · 20d

apnews.com/article/viet...

AP Exclusive: Russia, Vietnam using energy profits to avoid possible US sanctions for arms deals

Russia and Vietnam have developed a mechanism to conceal arms deal payments to avoid American and other Western sanctions, using profits from joint energy-sector ventures to pay for defense contracts,...

apnews.com

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Reposted by Dake Kang

Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show

U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.

apnews.com

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

34/Today, it has become one of the defining characteristics of a new techno-authoritarianism Beijing has pioneered, one that fuses the old-school secret police and paranoia of Leninist-Maoist Communism with cutting edge tech brought by American capitalism.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

33/Going back to that trip to Kazakhstan in March 2018, I felt as though I had finally solved the mystery of what happened.
“Predictive policing” – a concept born in the West & turbocharged by 9/11 – was brought to China by American firms.
In China, it took on a life of its own.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

32/Xinjiang told us in a 5-page fax such tech is used to “combat terrorist & criminal activity,” that it respects citizens’ privacy and rights & that it does not target ethnicities.
They called the U.S. a “true surveillance state,” citing cameras strung up around New York.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

31/By the time authorities launched their mass detention campaign, they had compiled dossiers on huge swaths of Xinjiang’s population. Terror struck the Uyghur community, as vast numbers disappeared into camps with little explanation other than being flagged as “suspicious”.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

30/Xinjiang’s cities were strung with thousands of police checkpoints and millions of cameras.
Massive new data centers were built and strung together, allowing police to fuse data and sift through vast amounts of information to find what they considered potential “terrorists”.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

29/ That’s when Xinjiang began constructing its digital police state.
After over a decade of buying American predictive policing technology, they knew how to do it.
apnews.com/article/1ec5...

AP Exclusive: Digital police state shackles Chinese minority

KORLA, China (AP) — Nobody knows what happened to the Uighur student after he returned to China from Egypt and was taken away by police.

apnews.com

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

28/Meanwhile, knifings and bombings in Xinjiang grew more frequent, peaking in an Urumqi train station bombing that took place hours after Xi Jinping visited.
He demanded a crackdown.
apnews.com/general-news...

China's Xi demands action after 3 killed in attack

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded "decisive actions" against terrorism following an attack at a railway station in the far-west minority region of Xinjiang that left three peopl...

apnews.com

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

27/When we asked IBM for comment, they said they cut relations with Landasoft in 2014 and barred sales to Xinjiang police in 2015.
Asked about their past sales to Chinese police and the Golden Shield, IBM sent us a letter calling it “old, stale interactions”.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

26/IBM acquired i2 and sold it to Chinese police via Landasoft and other agents. Over the years, Landasoft copied i2 and created their own, Chinese version of i2. They didn’t go far for a name, calling it “iTap”.
Zhou and Landasoft did not respond to requests for comment.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

25/In a 2009 pamphlet, IBM cited the Urumqi riots, saying their tech could help “maintain social stability”:
“Via real-time crime monitoring, early warning and detection systems, valuable information can be gleaned... to provide intelligent analysis for public security organs"

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

24/The solution?
The i2 playbook _ fusing data and drawing connections between individuals deemed suspicious.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

23/ Authorities didn’t know who to target. Their data was fractured: each department ran their own database with no connection between them. It allowed dissidents to organize opposition to the state.
It was the same issue that plagued American officials in the run up to 9/11.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

22/Faced with threats to the state, China adopted the American anti-terror playbook.
In secret meetings Chinese officials concluded a key reason for the unrest was their inability to identify Uyghurs they deemed separatists, terrorists, and religious extremists.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

21/In 2009, protests against the lynching of Uyghurs at a toy factory in southern China spiraled into riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital city. Hundreds of people, both Uyghur and of China’s Han majority, were shot, stabbed and killed.
apnews.com/general-news...

China locks down Xinjiang a decade after deadly ethnic riots

Ten years ago, minority Uighur Muslims attacked the Han Chinese population in ethnic violence that is rooted in decades of persecution.

apnews.com

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

20/i2 licensed Zhou to sell in China. In a presentation marketing i2 to Chinese police, Zhou’s firm touted i2’s use by the American military and intelligence agencies, including the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA.
Zhou was soon positioned for the opportunity of a lifetime.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

19/Lacking local expertise, U.S. firm often sold their gear through resellers, run by a crop of Chinese entrepreneurs.
Among them was Zhou Qiang. Hired by a British consultancy out of college, Zhou quit in 1998 to start his own company. His niche: policing software, including i2.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

18/ We obtained classified government blueprints for the Golden Shield, Phase II. They show a Chinese defense contractor worked with Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM to design and build the Golden Shield – essentially, the foundation for China’s digital surveillance state.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

17/Back to China.
Beijing was keen for similar tech. In the boom years of the 2000s, Millions were going online, unrest fermented online. Beijing built a massive digital policing system: the “Golden Shield”.
U.S. companies sold billions of dollars of surveillance gear to China.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

16/I should note: Regarding China, American companies say they have complied with U.S. laws and regulations throughout, including export controls. Today, they say they do not sell their products to the Xinjiang police or other sanctioned entities.

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Dake Kang @dakekang.bsky.social · 21d

15/IBM said at the time that it did not have much info about the operations of IBM’s German subsidiary because “most documents were destroyed or lost during the war” and said that its German operations came under the control of the Nazis. It added it took the allegations seriously.

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