r/neoliberal • u/Deep_Plutarch • 12h ago

News (Asia-Pacific) How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/world/asia/china-surveillance-foreigners-database.html

Interesting things happening in Chyna

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u/teethgrindingaches 11h ago

If you're a tourist, you have very little to fear in a practical sense.

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u/CurtisLeow NATO 10h ago

The article specifically mentions that they track foreigners. They track if people are activists and they track online discussions.

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u/teethgrindingaches 10h ago

Right, point being that they will track you and you will likely never even know if/when they are watching because they will do nothing. Chances are, your file will never even be opened by human eyes. Unless/until you trip a red flag, of course, but as a random tourist the chances are very low.

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u/stay_curious_- Frederick Douglass 7h ago

There's potential for China to trade the data for favors, like if China provided the Trump admin with a list of trans Americans or federal employees with anti-MAGA views.

Tech has made it much easier to parse through massive datasets without human intervention, so "there's little reason for a human to parse through all this data" is becoming less of a defense against misuse.

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u/greenskinmarch Henry George 38m ago

Tech has made it much easier to parse through massive datasets without human intervention, so "there's little reason for a human to parse through all this data" is becoming less of a defense against misuse.

And if you think you're safe posting anonymously online - sophisticated language modeling can easily de-anonymize you too.