Over the past quarter century, American #tech companies to a large degree designed & built #China’s #surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling #HumanRights abuses than previously known, an AP investigation found. They sold billions of dollars of technology to the Chinese #police, #government & surveillance companies, despite repeated warnings from the #US#Congress & in the media that such tools were being used to quash #dissent, persecute #religious sects & target #minorities.

Critically, American #surveillance #technologies allowed a brutal mass #detention campaign in the far west region of #Xinjiang — targeting, tracking & grading virtually the entire native #Uyghur population to forcibly assimilate & subdue them.

#US #tech companies did this by bringing “#PredictivePolicing” to #China#technology that sucks in & analyzes data to prevent crime, protests, or terror attacks before they happen.

#HumanRights #government#DigitalPoliceState#InternationalLaw #law

Such systems mine a vast array of information — texts, calls, payments, flights, video, DNA swabs, mail deliveries, the internet, even water & power use — to unearth individuals deemed suspicious & predict their behavior. But they also allow Chinese #police to threaten friends & family & preemptively detain people for crimes they have not even committed.

#HumanRights#US #tech#China#Uyghurs #government #dissent#PredictivePolicing#DigitalPoliceState#InternationalLaw #law #geopolitics