A joint media investigation has revealed that China is forcing tourists to install an app on their smartphone that is able to steal and monitor texts, emails and other files.
The malware is part of a plot to spy on foreigners crossing into China’s Xinjiang region, where authorities are apparently cracking down on the local Muslim population, according to the investigation.
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Visitors are literally forced to install spy software on their phones – a border guard physically takes the phone and installs the app – giving Chinese officials access to all of their text messages, the report claims.
The joint investigation was conducted by Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Germany’s NDR.
“(This app) provides yet another source of evidence showing how pervasive mass surveillance is being carried out in Xinjiang,” Maya Wang, China senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. “We already know that Xinjiang residents — particularly Turkic Muslims — are subjected to around-the-clock and multidimensional surveillance in the region. What you’ve found goes beyond that: it suggests that even foreigners are subjected to such mass, and unlawful surveillance.”
The app allegedly puts the 100 million yearly visitors to Xinjiang at risk of state surveillance. The Irkeshtam crossing is China’s most westerly border, and is regularly used by tourists and traders.
China has come under increasing international pressure recently over its arbitrary detention of Muslims in concentration camps in the northwest part of the country.