A shocking discovery has come to light after an investigative report claimed that China has been spying on over 10,000 Indian citizens including President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The espionage conspiracy against India hatched by China comes in the wake of tensions between the two countries at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.
Besides the politicians and industrialists, China has also spied on the Editor in Chief of Zee News, Zee Business and WION Sudhir Chaudhary. Notably, Zee News started a 'Made in India' campaign against Chinese goods and consistently reported against China's incursion on LAC.
In July, China had targeted WION news channel by blocking its access in the country.
Since the beginning of coronavirus pandemic, WION has reported extensively on China's cover-up, and hence, Beijing expressed its displeasure over this in more ways than one.
A Shenzen-based company named Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Limited, which has links with the Chinese government and the Communist Party, has been tasked with monitoring over 10,000 Indians including prominent citizens including President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others, a report by The Indian Express has said.
The list includes President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and their families, Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee, Ashok Gehlot and Amarinder Singh to Uddhav Thackeray, Naveen Patnaik and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal, Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Singh Rawat and at least 15 former Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde and brother judge AM Khanwilkar, Lokpal Justice PC Ghose and Comptroller and Auditor General GC Murmu, start-up tech entrepreneurs like Nipun Mehra, founder of Bharat Pe (an Indian payment app), and Ajay Trehan of AuthBridge, an authentication technology firm, to top industrialists Ratan Tata and Gautam Adani, the report said.
Along with the ministers, it has also been learnt that the Chinese firm is monitoring bureaucrats in key positions, judges, scientists and academicians; journalists, actors and sportspersons, religious figures and activists, said the report. The company is also keeping an eye on many people accused of financial crime, corruption, terrorism, and smuggling of narcotics, gold, arms or wildlife.
What data is spied on
Chinese spies keep an eye on this data
- personal information
- information about friends
- Family relations information
- Which locations did you visit
- Social media account
- Comments, likes on social media
- Social media posts
Notably, Zhenhua also works with Chinese intelligence, military and security agencies. The company has an office in Shenzhen province of China and has 20 data centers worldwide. It gets its inputs from news websites and social media.
