China, one of the countries with the most extensive internal surveillance and also criticized for its extreme social control, held a global security forum last week, showcasing cutting-edge technology in this field. Highlights included security cameras, highly precise DNA technologies, and facial recognition software, according to various international news agencies that reported on the event.
The so-called “Global Public Security Cooperation Forum” took place from September 9th to 11th in Lianyungang, an important tourist city in China known for its warm climate, natural landscapes, and traditional infrastructure.
The forum’s participants were mainly representatives from police forces and security agencies from various countries around the world, including the Chief of the Nicaraguan Police, First Commissioner Francisco Díaz.
China Trains Foreign Police
China’s Minister of Public Security, Wang Xiaohong, stated during the forum’s inauguration that last year the Chinese police trained 2,700 foreign officers and plans to train another 3,000 in the next 12 months.
During his visit, Police Chief Díaz, met with Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong to sign a bilateral cooperation agreement on security. This agreement will involve training Nicaraguan officers in areas such as public security, crime prevention, and investigation, as well as providing police techniques and technologies to combat terrorism, drug trafficking, and cybercrime, according to a press release from state media.
According to international experts, China aims to export its policing and surveillance techniques to “normalize and legitimize its style of surveillance and (…) its authoritarian political system,” said Bethany Allen, an expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, in an interview with the Peruvian newspaper La República.
For years, international human rights organizations have reported that China is a “surveillance state” that uses cutting-edge technology to maintain social control within the country. In recent years, there have been new allegations accusing China of establishing a surveillance network in other countries as well.
The NGO Safeguard Defenders, based in Madrid, published a series of reports alleging the existence of at least 102 “Chinese police service centers” in 53 countries, including seven in Latin America, according to BBC.
Relationship with Nicaragua
China and Nicaragua resumed diplomatic relations in December 2021, following the diplomatic break with Taiwan, whose sovereignty Beijing claims. Critics and Nicaraguan opponents, many of whom are in exile, argue that Ortega’s dictatorship wants to replicate the Chinese political model to achieve complete subjugation of the population.
Under Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua, the police particularly are used to suppress civil protests and any critical expressions within the country. International human rights organizations have documented serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by Ortega’s police during the 2018 protests, which resulted in more than 300 deaths, according to reports from these organizations.
China is also known for its repressive actions against any form of dissent. Amnesty International has reported that under the pretext of national security, China restricts the exercise of rights, including freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.
Cyberspace censorship
Moreover, the Asian giant specializes in regulating cyberspace, a practice that Nicaragua has been implementing in recent years. On September 11, the National Assembly under Ortega’s dictatorship reformed the Special Cybercrime Law to increase prison sentences for cybercrimes and criminalize the use of social networks and mobile applications in Nicaragua.
Amnesty International reported that this year, China imposed even greater restrictions on social media users by introducing new guidelines regulating social media accounts and blogs with “non-institutional content.” Consequently, social media companies implemented new policies requiring influencers and others with large followings to reveal their real names, raising concerns about privacy rights.
Just like in Nicaragua, China has been persecuting both domestic and foreign journalists for years. In June, amid existing tensions between the Chinese and Indian governments, the formal presence of Indian media in China ended with the expulsion of a journalist from the Hindustan Times.
In October, Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who had worked for the state-owned Chinese television network CGTN, was released. She had been detained since August 2020 on charges of “disseminating state secrets abroad.”
In Nicaragua, hundreds of journalists have been forced into exile, and some have been imprisoned, exiled, denationalized, and had their assets confiscated.
Support from Russia
Ortega’s dictatorship also relies on advisors from the Russian regime, experts in security and espionage, to strengthen its surveillance methods. According to opposition sources from Nicaragua, the Ortega-Murillo regime has inaugurated a new social espionage center in Managua, based on the implementation of Chinese surveillance technology and with tracking and control advisory from Russian experts.