For more than two decades, the digital infrastructure of China’s surveillance state has been quietly shaped by American technology. According to a sweeping Associated Press investigation, U.S. tech giants—often knowingly, sometimes with plausible deniability—played a far greater role in enabling China’s human rights abuses than previously understood. The AP’s findings, based on interviews with more than 100 sources, tens of thousands of documents, and several major leaks, paint a detailed and troubling picture of how American innovation fueled the world’s most sophisticated surveillance regime.
The investigation, which spanned three years and crossed three continents, uncovered thousands of pages of classified government documents, blueprints, and accounting ledgers from a Chinese military contractor and IBM partner. These documents, smuggled out of China by a whistleblower, were just the tip of the iceberg. Over 20,000 leaked internal emails and a large database from Landasoft—a Chinese surveillance company and former IBM partner—provided a window into the software at the heart of China’s crackdown in Xinjiang, where the native Uyghur population was systematically targeted, tracked, and graded for forced assimilation.
IBM’s role was especially prominent. As detailed by the AP, Chinese police and state-owned defense contractors partnered with IBM and other American firms to design China’s surveillance apparatus from the top down. IBM’s i2 police surveillance analysis software, in particular, was sold to Chinese police, including those in Xinjiang and China’s Ministry of State Security, throughout the 2010s. Leaked emails revealed that Landasoft staff claimed their software was copied from i2 and customized for the Chinese market, directly enabling predictive policing platforms that flagged hundreds of thousands of people as potential terrorists during the brutal Xinjiang crackdown.
IBM, for its part, maintains that it fully complied with all laws, sanctions, and U.S. export controls, past and present. In response to the AP’s findings, the company stated, “If older systems are being abused today—and IBM has no knowledge that they are—the misuse is entirely outside of IBM’s control, was not contemplated by IBM decades ago, and in no way reflects on IBM today.” The company added that it ceased relations with Landasoft in 2014 and prohibited sales to police in Xinjiang and Tibet since 2015.
But IBM was far from alone. Dell and its then-subsidiary VMWare sold cloud software and storage devices to police and entities supporting law enforcement in Tibet and Xinjiang, even as late as 2022—long after reports of ethnic repression had become global headlines. In 2019, Dell even promoted a “military-grade” AI-powered laptop with “all-race recognition” for Chinese police, according to WeChat marketing material reviewed by the AP. Dell, based in Texas, responded that it conducts “rigorous due diligence” to ensure compliance with U.S. export controls.
Other American and international companies appeared throughout the AP’s trove of documents. Oracle and Microsoft software were used in Chinese policing systems, including in Xinjiang. California-based Intel partnered with Hisign, a Chinese fingerprinting company that sold to Xinjiang police, to make fingerprint readers more effective. Although Intel stated it has not had technical engagement with Hisign since 2024 and would “act swiftly” if it learned of credible misuse, Chinese media reported that Hisign remained an Intel partner as recently as last year.
Facial recognition and AI camera technology were promoted by IBM, Dell, Tokyo-based Hitachi, and VMWare for use by Chinese police. Sony boasted on WeChat about wiring a Chinese prison with “intelligent” cameras for surveillance projects. Nvidia and Intel partnered with China’s three largest surveillance companies to add AI capabilities to camera systems across the country, including in Xinjiang and Tibet, until U.S. sanctions forced a halt. Nvidia, for example, posted in 2022 that its chips were used by Chinese surveillance firms to train AI patrol drones and systems that identify people by their walk. The company told AP these relationships have since ended.
Surveillance extended to DNA as well. Chinese police DNA labs purchased Dell and Microsoft software and equipment to store genetic data. In 2021, Hitachi advertised DNA sequencers to Chinese police, while German biotech firm Eppendorf sold pipettes to police labs as recently as 2024. Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific’s website stated until August that its kits were made for China’s national DNA database and “designed” for the Chinese population, including “ethnic minorities like Uyghurs and Tibetans.” Thermo Fisher said its kits “are designed to be effective across diverse global populations” and do not distinguish among specific ethnic groups. The company stopped sales in Xinjiang in 2021 and in Tibet in 2024 but continued to promote kits to police elsewhere in China.
The AP found that predictive policing—mining texts, calls, payments, flights, video, DNA swabs, mail deliveries, internet usage, even water and power use—became a core tool for Chinese authorities to identify and preemptively detain individuals deemed suspicious. This system, built with American and foreign technology, allowed Chinese police to monitor and control citizens on an unprecedented scale.
Other American firms provided crucial hardware and software. Motorola supplied encrypted radio communications technology to Chinese police for handling “sudden and mass events” in Beijing. Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba sold hard drives optimized for AI video systems used by Chinese police; Toshiba’s sales director told the AP these drives are “optimized and adapted for security systems.” Mapping software from IBM, Oracle, and California-based Esri formed the backbone of China’s Police Geographic Information System, alerting police when Uyghurs, Tibetans, or dissidents strayed out of designated areas. U.S. export controls on such software only began in 2020, and Esri still maintains a research center in Beijing.
On the streets, Chinese police carried Motorola walkie-talkies, wore body cameras using Samsung microSD cards, and sometimes used Philips-branded recorders. Philips denied any partnership with Jinghua, the Chinese state-owned company advertising Philips-branded police cameras, and said it would contact the company over the posts.
Many of the companies named in the AP investigation—IBM, Dell, Cisco, Amazon Web Services, Seagate, Intel, Thermo Fisher, and Western Digital—stated they adhere to all relevant export controls, laws, and regulations. Others, like Eppendorf, Sony, and Hitachi, said they respect human rights but declined to elaborate on their Chinese business relationships. Some, including Oracle, HP, Motorola, Samsung, Toshiba, Huadi, and Landasoft, did not respond to requests for comment. Microsoft said it did not knowingly provide software updates to China’s main policing system.
The Chinese government defended its use of surveillance technology, with the Xinjiang government stating it is used to “prevent and combat terrorist and criminal activity” and does not target any particular ethnicity. The statement also accused Western countries of hypocrisy, calling the U.S. “a true surveillance state.”
Throughout the AP’s investigation, reporters themselves were swept up in the very digital dragnet they were uncovering—tracked, stopped, and questioned by Chinese authorities. Many of their sources, both in China and abroad, spoke only under strict anonymity, fearing for their own safety and that of their families.
As the world’s largest and most sophisticated surveillance state continues to expand, the AP’s findings raise urgent questions about the global responsibilities of technology companies and the true cost of innovation without oversight.