{"id":79007,"date":"2026-02-06T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/890088668"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:21:08","slug":"how-american-technology-helps-china-persecute-its-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/how-american-technology-helps-china-persecute-its-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"How American Technology Helps China Persecute Its Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

When Chinese authorities raided the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu in 2018, Li Yingqiang, the sole church elder to temporarily escape custody, placed his children in the care of another family and went into hiding.<\/span><\/p>\n

The leaders of Early Rain <\/span>thought<\/span><\/a> they had prepared for a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) crackdown, yet their efforts were to no avail. More than 100 out of 500 church members were <\/span>arrested<\/span><\/a> in the 2018 raid, including Early Rain\u2019s leader, Pastor Wang Yi. Authorities later <\/span>sentenced<\/span><\/a> Wang to nine years in prison for \u201cinciting subversion of state power\u201d and \u201cillegal business activities\u201d following a quick, closed-door trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wang had <\/span>intentionally<\/span><\/a> gained weight to prepare for brutal prison conditions and <\/span>drafted<\/span><\/a> his \u201cLetter from a Chengdu Jail\u201d to be released upon his arrest. In it, Wang wrote: \u201cThose who lock me up will one day be locked up by angels. Those who interrogate me will finally be questioned and judged by Christ.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

While he was referring to members of the CCP, if Yi\u2019s predictions are true, some of America\u2019s largest technology companies may face judgement as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, thanks in part to Silicon Valley, Christian worshippers across China must use an app that contains their biometric data and other personal information to enter state-sanctioned churches. Services are recorded by surveillance cameras as Chinese authorities analyze and censor the content of sermons. Voice recognition and digital surveillance software tracks their activity and conversations in and out of church. <\/span><\/p>\n

These technologies, evolved from U.S. hardware and software, are the product of a decades-long project to surveil China\u2019s people, especially members of minority groups. While this system was first implemented and perfected in Xinjiang, where the majority Uyghur population is Muslim, it is now being used to target Christians throughout China.<\/span><\/p>\n

China Built a System of Repression in Xinjiang \u2013 With U.S. Help<\/b><\/p>\n

Beginning in the early 2000s, American companies played a central role in constructing China\u2019s modern surveillance state. China\u2019s Ministry of Public Security and defense contractor Huadi <\/span>partnered<\/span><\/a> with IBM to design \u201cGolden Shield,\u201d the country\u2019s first large-scale digital policing system. IBM\u2019s i2 Analyst\u2019s Notebook <\/span>allowed<\/span><\/a> police to ingest hundreds of thousands names, phone numbers, locations, and messages. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cisco, Oracle, HP, Dell, and Seagate also <\/span>secured<\/span><\/a> major contracts, including in some instances to expand Golden Shield. IBM and Huadi <\/span>built<\/span><\/a> advanced fingerprint databases, HP and VMware supplied technology for fingerprint comparison, and Esri sold ArcGIS tools that enabled police to geofence minority neighborhoods. <\/span><\/p>\n

Chinese authorities used these tools to design a predictive policing system that <\/span>marked<\/span><\/a> hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners as potential terrorists before they had committed a crime. <\/span>Falun Gong<\/span><\/a> is a spiritual discipline and movement begun in China in 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some companies clearly knew what their technologies would be used for. Leaked Cisco presentations from 2008 <\/span>advertised<\/span><\/a> routers capable of filtering \u201cover 90 percent\u201d of Falun Gong internet traffic and adopted CCP language calling the group an \u201cevil cult.\u201d Cisco marketed its hardware as ideal for \u201cstability maintenance.\u201d It is currently <\/span>facing<\/span><\/a> lawsuits from Falun Gong practitioners alleging the company knowingly enabled their persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States government <\/span>actively<\/span><\/a> facilitated sales of technology used for surveillance in China. Before 2017\u20132018, only a small set of <\/span>explicitly<\/span><\/a> Chinese military-linked companies were restricted from buying certain U.S. products. Companies have consistently <\/span>argued<\/span><\/a> that they complied with all applicable export-control laws and sanctions. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the mid-2010s, as the Xinjiang security buildout <\/span>accelerated<\/span><\/a>, American hardware and software remained embedded at every level. The Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), a data-fusion hub that aggregates biometric files, travel history, online behavior, and household information, <\/span>ran<\/span><\/a> on Dell and HP servers, Cisco switches, and Seagate\/Western Digital hard drives. <\/span><\/p>\n

American semiconductors also powered the core computing behind Xinjiang\u2019s AI-driven policing. High-performance analytics systems built by Sugon and other Chinese military-linked firms <\/span>ran<\/span><\/a> on Intel Xeon processors <\/span>and<\/span><\/a> Nvidia GPU accelerators. Hikvision cameras routinely <\/span>used<\/span><\/a> Intel CPUs, Movidius AI processors, Nvidia modules, and Western Digital\/Seagate storage. Ambarella and TechPoint, both California chipmakers, <\/span>depended<\/span><\/a> heavily<\/span><\/a> on sales to Hikvision and Dahua until sanctions disrupted the pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite evidence their technologies were being used to crack down on human rights, action from some companies <\/span>lagged<\/span><\/a> behind these reports. Dell, Intel, and Nvidia <\/span>continued<\/span><\/a> selling chips and modules for Chinese surveillance products well after allegations of their abuse surfaced. Dell even <\/span>advertised<\/span><\/a> its AI-powered \u201call-race recognition\u201d software along with a Chinese surveillance company into 2019. This was long <\/span>after<\/span><\/a> public allegations of Chinese human rights abuses perpetrated against the Uyghurs were first widely reported. IBM <\/span>barred<\/span><\/a> sales to police in Xinjiang and Tibet in 2015, but none of the other firms mentioned announced independent bans before Washington acted. <\/span><\/p>\n

Western Digital<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Seagate<\/span><\/a> likewise continued supporting companies that facilitated the Chinese police and censorship systems until sanctions and U.S. government pressure forced a course correction. The Associated Press found that contracts to maintain IBM, Dell, HP, Oracle, and Microsoft technology <\/span>remained<\/span><\/a> \u201cubiquitous\u201d long after the Xinjiang abuses were documented, although often with third-parties. Even into the 2020s, police systems outside Xinjiang <\/span>continued<\/span><\/a> to rely on U.S. technology, including Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many companies stopped selling only when the U.S. government began sanctioning Chinese surveillance firms, despite the fact that there was significant press about the abuses prior to the sanctions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding New Targets for Surveillance Technology<\/b><\/p>\n

After building out a scalable repression model in Xinjiang, the CCP turned its attention to Chinese Christians. In 2018, before the raid on Early Rain, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping <\/span>unveiled<\/span><\/a> a five-year-plan to \u201cSinicize\u201d Christianity. Nominally, the <\/span>goal<\/span><\/a> of Sinicization is to ensure that \u201creligious doctrines are\u2026 guided by the core socialist values.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In practice, the CCP <\/span>supervises<\/span><\/a> Bible translations, <\/span>censors<\/span><\/a> sermons, requires the <\/span>inclusion<\/span><\/a> of \u201cXi Jinping Thought\u201d in seminary curricula, and disappears Christians it sees as antithetical to its rule. Churches are required to display portraits of Xi and national flags, sing patriotic anthems <\/span>instead<\/span><\/a> of religious hymns, and <\/span>inject<\/span><\/a> pro-CCP messaging into their preaching. Often Chinese Christians, including those belonging to Early Rain, resist this push, which many see as an attempt to <\/span>suborn<\/span><\/a> faith in God to faith in the Party.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Early Rain, Chinese authorities raided the Beijing Zion Church in 2025 and arrested Pastor Ezra Jin on <\/span>charges<\/span><\/a> of \u201cillegal dissemination of religious information via the internet.\u201d Zion had been <\/span>forced<\/span><\/a> to shut its doors in 2018 after it refused government orders to install surveillance cameras, but continued meeting in person and online in a strong show of faith. <\/span><\/p>\n

Christians who persist in underground worship <\/span>face<\/span><\/a> constant police harassment and detention. Some have <\/span>been<\/span><\/a> held for months in brainwashing camps similar to the facilities Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners continue to be sent to. <\/span><\/p>\n

Aiding the CCP in its effort to crack down on Christians is the surveillance framework perfected in Xinjiang, with the help of American companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Wenzhou, the <\/span>epicenter<\/span><\/a> of China\u2019s Christian population \u2013 colloquially dubbed \u201cChina\u2019s Jerusalem\u201d \u2013 officials ordered state-sanctioned Christian groups to <\/span>install<\/span><\/a> \u201canti-terrorism\u201d cameras in and outside of churches. Congregants who <\/span>resisted<\/span><\/a> were beaten. These cameras fed into local Public Security Bureau (PSB) command centers, where analysts <\/span>monitored<\/span><\/a> attendance patterns, sermon content, and interactions between members.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unclear who manufactures these cameras, Hikvision and Dahua are by far the <\/span>dominant<\/span><\/a> suppliers of surveillance cameras used by CCTV systems in China. These companies became global surveillance giants in large part because of their deep integration with U.S. supply chains. Their core products were <\/span>built<\/span><\/a> around Intel processors, Nvidia AI accelerators, and image-processing chips from California-based Ambarella. Their video-storage systems <\/span>relied<\/span><\/a> on hard drives from Western Digital and Seagate.<\/span><\/p>\n

In state-approved churches in Hubei, officials <\/span>installed<\/span><\/a> facial-recognition kiosks, fingerprint readers, and ID-scanning gates at entrances. Churches in Huangshi were <\/span>instructed<\/span><\/a> to gather congregants\u2019 biometric and household details for government files. In Jiangxi, authorities <\/span>installed<\/span><\/a> more than 200 cameras in churches and temples as part of the CCP\u2019s \u201cSharp Eyes\u201d program. Even bathrooms in some churches were <\/span>outfitted<\/span><\/a> with cameras marketed as anti-vandalism devices. <\/span><\/p>\n

Voice surveillance systems in churches <\/span>used<\/span><\/a> to track Uyghurs and now Christians also trace back to American involvement. iFlytek, China\u2019s <\/span>dominant<\/span><\/a> voice-recognition company, had <\/span>entered<\/span><\/a> a five-year research partnership with MIT before it was blacklisted for <\/span>supporting<\/span><\/a> China\u2019s human rights abuses, and the partnership terminated. iFlytek also <\/span>rented<\/span><\/a> access to Nvidia\u2019s A100 chips from a third-party years after being sanctioned. However, it was only after the CCP began targeting Christians that the U.S. government independently realized the scale of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and the role of U.S. companies in enabling it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. government <\/span>began<\/span><\/a> reversing course around 2017-2018, when <\/span>reports<\/span><\/a> of mass surveillance and internment in Xinjiang reached Congress. Although Congress began <\/span>asking<\/span><\/a> companies for explanations, the Commerce and State departments still <\/span>allowed<\/span><\/a> most surveillance exports. The formal message to industry did not change until October 2019, when the Commerce Department <\/span>added<\/span><\/a> Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, Hikvision, Dahua, and related AI firms to the Entity List, Washington\u2019s blacklist that prohibits trade with designated companies. Congress also <\/span>blacklisted<\/span><\/a> Sugon, SenseTime, Megvii, iFlytek, Yitu, in 2019, saying \u201cthese entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China\u2019s campaign of repression.\u201d Only at that point did the U.S. government clearly <\/span>notify<\/span><\/a> companies that the systems they helped build were being used for human rights abuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the facts are no longer in dispute. The world knows exactly how China uses these technologies. Company compliance teams have undoubtedly read the same reports; their executives <\/span>have<\/span><\/a> been questioned by Congress. Their risk offices must by now understand that any technology sold to China\u2019s public-security ecosystem is likely to be used for political and religious repression. <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, awareness has not led to meaningful change. Instead, many of the same corporations are now lobbying Washington to relax the export restrictions. Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm, and others <\/span>warned<\/span><\/a> that restrictions threaten their competitiveness and asked for chip export curbs to be rescinded. These companies <\/span>emphasize<\/span><\/a> that access to Chinese customers is critical to their revenues. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nvidia<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Intel<\/span><\/a> made less powerful chips to avoid export controls while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang <\/span>continues<\/span><\/a> to lobby the Trump administration to allow the sale of more advanced chips to China. Huang has recently had some success, convincing the Trump administration to <\/span>allow<\/span><\/a> the sale of Nvidia\u2019s advanced H200 chips to Chinese companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both companies <\/span>claim<\/span><\/a> that if Chinese companies were committing human rights abuses with their technology, they would cease sales. If experience offers any guide, however, it will not be long until Nvidia\u2019s second-most powerful chips are used to upgrade the security systems that help the CCP persecute Uyghurs, Christians, and other minority groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lesson many firms appear to have drawn from the persecution in Xinjiang is not moral clarity, but fear of market loss.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, if Washington maintains and reimplements strict export controls and restricts the trade of technologies that can be abused by Beijing, the United States can help ensure its companies stop contributing to China\u2019s growing repression of its Christian community. <\/span><\/p>\n

Congress should direct the Commerce Department\u2019s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to create a new, explicit export-control category focused on religious repression in China. Under this rule, companies would need a license to export advanced chips if they know or should reasonably suspect the chips could be used to identify, track, or analyze Christian worshippers or clergy \u2013 for example through cameras at church entrances or software that analyzes sermons using voice or facial recognition. <\/span><\/p>\n

In parallel, BIS should expand the Entity List to include specific Chinese government bodies and technology integrators involved in church surveillance, namely the United Front Work Department, which is the CCP body that <\/span>enforces<\/span><\/a> religious regulations. Finally, Congress should advance the Chip Security Act, which would require export-controlled advanced chips to include tamper-resistant location-verification features, obligating companies to report when chips are diverted or their tracking is disabled.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. tech companies also have a moral responsibility of their own. They need not wait for government action. Perhaps before the mid-2010s, when reports of Uyghur human rights abuses became prominent, some companies could claim ignorance, but now Nvidia and others are fully aware that their technologies are being used to suppress, surveil, and arrest Chinese citizens of all faiths.<\/span><\/p>\n

A course correction won\u2019t absolve these companies of past wrongdoing. It would, however, prevent new American technology from being used to persecute Chinese believers.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… specific Chinese government bodies and technology<\/span> integrators involved in church surveillance … tracking is disabled. U.S. tech<\/span> companies also have a moral … specific Chinese government bodies and technology<\/span> integrators involved in church surveillance …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}