Chinese Whistleblower Exposes How Beijing Monitors Citizens At Home, Abroad

A former Chinese official, now residing in the United States, has exposed Beijing's vast surveillance network, which monitors citizens not only at home but also overseas, including in America. The whistleblower detailed how certain government programs function.

Ma Ruilin, who now runs a Chinese restaurant in New York, said he was involved in designing and carrying out policies that targeted religious minorities in China. He also described the growing power of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a branch of the Communist Party where he worked as a deputy secretary.

Explaining his decision to leave China, Ma said it was not a sudden move, but rather a gradual unhappiness with the policies he was helping implement in Beijing. "The system has always been evil. If you don't leave, you'll keep doing evil there," he told CNN.

"I know all the details, everything that happened in the Xinjiang camps, the little things, how cruel it was, how they did things, how they 'managed' people," he added.

Ruilin, who belonged to the Chinese-speaking Muslim minority, alleged that his department was instructed to take strict action against certain religious sites. This included shutting down some mosques, removing architectural features such as domes and expelling imams.

He further claimed that officials hired informants within communities to report on religious activities. Surveillance cameras were also installed in and around mosques, including one in Gansu province. People linked to UFWD have been accused of pressuring, harassing or intimidating activists who criticise the Chinese government.

Lin Hai, a Chinese national who lives in New York and works as an Uber driver, said he was attacked during a political rally in 2019. According to him, he attended the rally to show support for Tsai Ing-wen, who was visiting at the time and serving as President of Taiwan.

"I was shocked. Because I never expected to be threatened or beaten on American soil," he said.

Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, said that hundreds of Chinese operatives are currently working in the US and called it a "gross breach of US sovereignty". 

China says these groups mainly provide assistance to citizens, such as guiding newcomers with daily tasks like applying for driver's licences, finding housing, or adjusting to life in the US.

However, Rozhavsky claimed, "They are also being used as recruitment grounds for people who are willing to engage in transnational repression."

"If you're popular and vocal and have a very large following, you'll be seen as a threat," said Rozhavsky. "They're creating this Orwellian climate of fear where everyone is afraid to speak out, even though they're on US soil, and it's their right to do so," he added.

Ruilin claimed that beginning in 2018, officials from Xinjiang were sent to Rwanda to study the 1994 genocide, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and is widely recognised as one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

"It teaches you how to use even more brutal methods to torment people," he said.

A recent report by The Jamestown Foundation said that more than 2,000 organisations linked to China's United Front system have been identified across four democratic countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada, and Germany.

In 2023, two Chinese Americans were accused of operating a secret Chinese police outpost in Manhattan's Chinatown. According to a 2022 report by Safeguard Defenders, at least 102 similar Chinese police stations were operating around the world.

However, China has dismissed the claims, saying, "There are no so-called secret police stations. China has always strictly abided by international law and respected the judicial sovereignty of all countries."