Iran has brutally repressed the ongoing protests in the country against the Islamic regime and, according to an analysis by international security experts, has had indirect support from China, which has provided the Persian country with several advanced digital surveillance technologies, now used to identify, track and arrest protesters who are on the streets.
According to Craig Singleton, senior researcher at the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), monitoring systems provided to the Iranian regime by the Chinese company Tiandy Digital Technology Co. – which is linked to the Chinese Communist Party CCP) – have been used by Iranian security forces to locate participants in the current mobilizations. The system was also used by the regime to identify and capture participants in women-led protests against the mandatory wearing of the Islamic veil in 2022.
According to Singleton, the use of the Chinese system to repress protests in Iran “is not a question of improper or isolated use of technology” by the forces of the Islamic regime, but of deliberate action by a Chinese company that, according to him, has been exporting mechanisms of state repression as a service.
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“This is digital authoritarianism in action,” wrote the analyst, defending new sanctions against the Chinese company for human rights violations.
According to a Newsweek report, Tiandy is part of a group of Chinese companies that export surveillance technology to several authoritarian regimes. According to the publication, activists and researchers claim that these systems have expanded the Iranian State’s ability to identify protesters in different waves of protests, including through facial recognition and real-time recording.
China is currently the world’s largest supplier of surveillance technologies. According to Newsweekthe country began to export the experience accumulated in digital control of its own population to other governments.
A report from the website IranWirepublished in December last year, shows that Iran has significantly accelerated the expansion of its network of surveillance cameras in cities in recent years. According to the publication, contracts signed between the Iranian regime and Chinese companies allowed the installation of monitoring and surveillance equipment in streets, bridges, public transport, residential buildings, commercial establishments and even schools, connecting these images to police centers.
Documents cited by IranWire indicate that this equipment is integrated with facial recognition and license plate reading platforms, expanding state control over the population.
According to the NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 2,571 people died as a result of the repression carried out by the Iranian regime against the ongoing protests in the country.
