Over the past 10 days, Beijing received not one, but three shocks as unprecedented information leaks hit the newsstands, providing the world a rare glimpse into the inner machinations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Rather then creating new ones, these tremors revealed existing fissures that are likely to grow as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) faces pressure from all sides over his unyielding, strong-arm tactics, including from within.
Not only is the moral imperative to act now indisputable, the time is also ripe to effect real change.
The “Xinjiang papers” revealed on Nov. 16 by the New York Times came courtesy of an anonymous CCP member wishing to ensure that Xi and other leaders do not escape culpability for their role in the Xinjiang concentration camps.
The papers include more than 400 pages detailing Xi’s directive to psychologically indoctrinate Muslim-minority Uighurs, as well as more than 12,000 investigations into party members for failing to carry out orders with sufficient enthusiasm.
This was followed on Saturday by alleged Chinese spy Wang Liqiang’s (王立強) defection to Australia with intelligence on the CCP’s coordinated political interference operations “in all countries,” especially in Taiwan, to “ensure no one threatens its authority.”
Another significant document trove gathered by exiled Uighurs, the “China Cables,” was released the next day by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, exposing the inner workings of the Xinjiang camps and the Orwellian police state under which the Uighurs are living.
They also detail the extent to which China’s artificial intelligence-powered Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP) has replaced human judgement when deciding who should be detained, often on the basis of data as innocuous as using the back door to your own home too often.
While long suspected, the leaks offer actionable proof of the CCP’s far-reaching campaign of control. Nations that have until now been equivocating on whether to take action can no longer stand on the side of benefit of the doubt — these atrocities are happening, and are part of a systematic and systemic regime of control that will continue to deepen if the world keeps its back turned.
Other nations should also take heed of the sovereignty encroachments these documents reveal.
The “China Cables” include a detailed list of foreign nationals identified by using data from Chinese consulates along with a directive for officials to investigate them, while Wang’s revelations back up suspicions of widespread overseas spying and political influence operations, including in Australia.
As leaks of this magnitude are rare, it likely indicates growing internal resistance and a potential reckoning over Xi’s strategy of technology-enabled absolute control.
Relying on the use of the IJOP and other tools ignores the realities on the ground and their effect on the public, counterintuitively leading to resistance and the same information gap that stymied Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) rule.
No matter the whistle-blowers’ incentives, whether altruistic or strategic, these leaks show that Xi’s vice-like grip on power is not quite as strong as he has led the world to believe, and with this revelation comes opportunity.
Now more than ever, added pressure from the international community through sanctions and legal action would ensure that Xi faces mounting challenges on all sides, forcing him to change his tactics or risk losing his mandate to rule.
Xi’s experiment in Orwellian control is showing itself for the fiction it is. Now is the time to act to ensure that this episode remains in the history books.
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