China’s secrets to control the Internet

To control the battlefield in cyberspace, the government relies on two oversight bodies: the Central Committee for Cyber Space Affairs, which is part of the “Chinese Communist Party”, and police units.

Party control determines the content that must be blocked or filtered, while the police impose censorship through tactics such as installing surveillance devices, preventing and filtering suspects’ communications, conducting investigations and carrying out arrests.

Party control of cyberspace

 

The “Communist Party of China” began to assert its control over the Internet in the mid-1990s, but it did not establish until 2014 the “Leading Central Group for Cyber Security and Informatics”،

It is an integrated agency nationwide with regulatory and oversight responsibilities (in 2018, President Xi Jinping promoted the group to a central committee).

Meanwhile, local judicial authorities have established similar offices attached to the “Chinese Communist Party” committees”.

 

The Chinese President, while welcoming him upon his arrival, the opening ceremony of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 4, 2023

China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

The local outlets of the Committee on Cyber Space Affairs – I will refer to the outlets as “cyber agencies” – to the workforce and technological capabilities for advanced monitoring. Instead, its main tasks are to routinely monitor and publish misleading information.

For example, the municipal internet agency of Longnan, which includes less than three million people, reported that it was used by late 2010،

Big Data and Cloud Computing to Monitor Public Opinion Online; In 2019, the agency monitored 515,000 online information related to Longnan, of which eight thousand were considered negative.

Local Internet agencies also recruit electronic commentators to campaign online to manipulate public opinion and publish misleading information.

Cyber Police Units”

 

On the other hand, cyber police units are responsible for enforcement and oversight. Cyber police were organized for the first time in public security offices throughout China in the early 2000s.

The Cyber Police Unit in Yanan City reported that its main tasks include “monitoring and controlling harmful information; collecting, analyzing and reporting information on developments on the Internet; enforcing regulations in Internet cafes؛ And investigate and deal with cybercrime”.

Cyber police units in local public security offices are relatively small although they perform such duties. The model Internet police unit in any region includes five to six officers.

Both local cyber agencies and cyber police units publish solutions with superior Internet surveillance around the clock.

For example, the Santa Fe Cyber Agency used an Internet surveillance technology called “Real Time eXchange. Internet police officers are required to inform the leadership of the Public Security Bureau of important developments, as well as the party committee in the region and the government.

China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

Internet agencies seem to define the content to be deleted and banned and then direct the police to implement it, although local records do not specify this.

For example, the Argon City Cyber Police Unit has stated that it is responsible for “organizing and implementing the ‘routine work’ of the Cyber Security Agency in Ergon (“routine work” indicates” Almost certain to censor content over the Internet).

Reports that the cyber police are receiving bribes from businessmen to delete critical leaflets for them also indicate that the cyber police are charged with enforcement.

When cyber agencies discover online material that requires investigation, the cyber police are alerted. For example, as soon as the Internet agency in the Yonlian region learned of what it called a dangerous “Internet rumor” in 2017, it contacted the Internet unit at the Public Security Bureau in the region to investigate.

Great firewall China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

This division of labor is administratively logical. It is not necessary to duplicate technological capabilities between agencies, and placing surveillance capabilities in police buildings faces a lower security risk, because these buildings are subject to better guarding than government buildings.

The police also run the “General Information Network Security Control and Control System” in China – or the so-called Great Firewall.

 

An illustration of a group of Chinese hackers 

Intensive monitoring and control work – The Internet police must carry out personal investigations and visits to individuals suspected of violations such as the publication of controlled substances.

In 2016, the Internet police in the Bayon District, where the city of Guiyang, conducted personal investigations with 85 people.

The Internet police in a neighboring area, the Yunyan region, were more aggressive, reporting 200 such investigations that year. Penalties for harmful activities on the Internet include detention, fines, and “cash and education”.  

China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

The cyber police use several tactics to reveal the identities of potential violators and violators. One way is to follow IP addresses, which is the unique definition associated with a local network that connects to the wider Internet.

This is easy to do because online access is provided by state-owned telecom companies. But more sophisticated users can avoid this type of identification by directing their online traffic to a virtual private network, or VPN.

Additional measures were needed to identify social media account holders, which allow anonymous publishing.

In February 2015, the new rules required all Internet users to provide their real names when registering accounts in chat rooms, the famous WeChat correspondent application, and the very active microblogging service “Weibo, and all other social media.

Internet cafes guards China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

Internet police also monitor access points, such as internet cafes and wireless fidelity networks، Or Wi-Fi) public in hotels, shopping centers, airports and other places to identify users outside their home networks (Internet cafes are not as common today as they were in the early 2000s،

But it is still widely used, especially online gaming enthusiasts).

The organizations help the Internet police do this. In 2001, the government imposed on private Internet cafes, which were supposed to request an ID card from each user, to keep customer information, including identities and online activities, for a period of 60 days.

Internet café operators are also required to obtain a license from the local public security office and cultural office, bearing in mind that cultural offices are government agencies that regulate the entertainment sector.

Newer rules require that Internet cafes install ID card readers so customers can only access the Internet after scanning ID cards that store identification information, including a color image of the face.

 

Young men at an internet cafe in Beijing, January 26, 2024 

Similar organizations preceded the launch of the cyber police, but they were applied loosely. Today, the Internet police strictly apply these rules and also train “security guards” in Internet cafes, who are supposed to ensure compliance with regulations and may also spy on clients.

In fact, some judicial authorities require Internet cafes to install cameras to monitor clients.

As for the monitoring of public accurate wireless broadcasting networks, the local cyber police began, in late 2000, requiring operators to implement unspecified “technical security measures. A concerted national effort is likely to have started in 2014.

China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

That year, the Wuhan police, for example, launched a three-year program to install “security management systems” in public micro-wireless broadcasting networks.

In 2016, the Public Security Office in Yunyan installed 560 public systems to monitor these networks.

Thousands of similar systems were installed in two regions of Sichuan Province between 2017 and 2018. On average, a monitor costs each network of accurate wireless broadcasting networks about $ 306، This indicates that this – monitoring program, including maintenance and operating costs after installation –, requires significant resources. 

User classification and blacklists

 

The Internet police pay special attention to users classified as “key individuals”, who are blacklisted by local authorities for participating in activities that are threats to system security and public safety. These include political dissidents, liberal scholars, human rights activists, members of illegal religious organizations, Falun Gong members, and other movements that the state considers “evil sects”.

It is reported that individuals – the keys also include some well-known pro-government figures, indicating the party’s suspicion of individuals who are popular regardless of their political loyalty.

The number of core individuals active online varies in different parts of China, showing that jurisdictions have broad latitude in making these classifications.

China’s secrets to control the Internet

 

In 2018, 100 key individuals were under surveillance in the Hengyang region. Internet police in Orugin, Inner Mongolia, reported that 25 people were under surveillance in 2015.

The city of Changzhou, Yunhe Region, announced that its police were in personal contact with 62 key individuals in 2016. However, several judicial authorities have identified a much higher number.

In 2018, the Jishan region had 1,141 such targets under surveillance, or approximately 0.3 percent of its population. Between 2011 and 2014, the Internet police in Tancheng District “registered and monitored” 3,475 key individuals, or about 0.4 percent of the population.

 

Although there are few general details about how China monitors key individuals، However, the procedure is one of the most important surveillance tactics in China because it allows the authorities to follow up on individuals who are likely to cause problems.

It appears that the cyber police have minimal files on the people targeted by them, as received from many judicial authorities.

For example, according to a report issued by the Public Security Bureau in the city of Nijiang in February 2011, the Cyber Police Unit was instructed to collect basic information on all types of key individuals, and to appoint officers to use “Various technical means “to check their affairs and use an unspecified police database to verify their identities online.

The report also mentions monitoring the targeted people in real time through information obtained from providers of Internet services and Internet cafes. 

Preventive repression

 

Such a distributed surveillance system allows the Chinese observer state to control the battlefield in cyberspace and neutralize threats to the rule of the “CPC”. As with other forms of preventive repression, these tactics allow the state to monitor the activities of opponents of the regime and restrict their freedom to work.

This observer state relies on the CPC’s strengths in organization and mobilization. The new specialized bureaucracies – In this case, the cyber agencies and the cyber police – are quickly formed to implement the central state agenda.

Despite the importance of technology, informants, police investigations and intimidation play essential roles. China’s success in controlling the battlefield in cyberspace reveals the ability of the “Chinese Communist Party” to adapt tactically in the face of any new threat to its grip on power.

In any case, it shows that we should never underestimate the party’s determination to perpetuate its rule – or its capabilities to do so.