The Eyes Are Everywhere: Avoiding State Surveillance in a Networked World
The world has changed, but Cold War tactics are still the same
When authoritarian regimes tighten control, they don’t just censor online speech—they infiltrate communities, monitor conversations, and use informants to track those they see as threats. I learned this first-hand back in the 1980s, when KGB agents kept a tight leash on Russian ex-pat communities in the West.
From the Soviet’s deep surveillance then, to China’s global network of secret police today, autocratic governments have long silenced dissent beyond their borders. In an era of rising digital and physical surveillance around the world, it affects us all, whether we realize it or not.
Coffee and chagrin
Miss Zhao, my kid’s Mandarin teacher, has been nothing but supportive and caring to my kid these past three years.
Yet this morning while texting her — yes, she and I are in solid communication, because she’s great — I found myself erasing a line. It was a little too much information about my kid, his intentions for college, his scary aptitudes in certain potentially strategic areas that aren’t readily apparent in a high school language class.
Why? With any other teacher, I would have left the text intact. It’s not because I’m paranoid — or not overly so, at least. Here’s where I need to make it clear that my reticence is not because she’s native Chinese. It’s because I’m a bit of an old spook, of the Slough House variety, and I’ve got history on both sides of government surveillance.
And what I see is history repeating itself
It’s because of the Chinese Communist Party, and their activities in this country to track, threaten, control and suppress people of Chinese birth OR Chinese descent. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been involved in transnational repression, targeting Chinese-born individuals and those of Chinese descent abroad — including American citizens — particularly those critical of the regime. This includes harassment, surveillance, and intimidation through diplomatic channels, student associations, and other proxies.
On university campuses across the U.S. and other Western countries, Chinese students who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often find themselves targets of harassment and intimidation. These actions are frequently coordinated by pro-CCP groups, including Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSA), some of which maintain close ties to the Chinese government. These associations have been known to actively suppress dissent by pressuring or threatening students who speak out against the regime. In some cases, the harassment escalates to include monitoring by Chinese state authorities or their proxies, reinforcing the sense that criticism of the CCP is neither tolerated abroad nor at home.
Additionally, there have been numerous reports of the Chinese government using digital platforms to disrupt events where sensitive issues, such as the treatment of Uyghurs, are discussed, further highlighting their influence in foreign countries.
These efforts to silence dissent and control the narrative extend beyond academia. The CCP has reportedly harassed and intimidated members of the Chinese diaspora through surveillance and coercive diplomacy, making it clear that their control extends globally.
Here’s where I need to backtrack a few decades
It’s the late 1980s, and I’m a young Army linguist, living in Germany. For extra language training and enhancement, the Army sends its linguists through “house” programs, in which the linguists study their target language during the day, and live with a family who’s a recent immigrant from the target country. Use of English was strictly forbidden, so we young linguists spoke nothing but our target language 24/7, for weeks or months at a time.
It’s a heady experience, and by heady I really mean, “exhilarating, exhausting, humbling, and illuminating.”
The thing I remember best from those days? Not the food and the conversation and the holiday gatherings with my new dissident families, though those are memories I’ll carry forever. No, it was the Soviet secret police — the KGB — hovering over our every moment. Masquerading as friends, KGB agents invited themselves to dinner with the family to meet the new Capitalist guests. KGB agents made repeated phone calls and in-person meetings with our hosts to gather information and to keep them in line. At least one of our handful of instructors at school was a KGB agent.
How did we know of these agents? Our hosts, and occasionally some teachers, clued us in. It was an open secret who these “secret” police were, because that’s how intimidation works. They wanted people to know they were there. They wanted people to be on their toes, to look over their shoulders. Ready to spill the secrets of their friends, even family, if need be.
They wanted our hosts and instructors — who had defected from the Soviet Union to the West — to know for damned certain they weren’t free of the long arm of the Communist state, and never would be.
Different Time, Similar Tactics
So now, when I read about the Chinese Communist Party targeting people in this country, I know that they not only intimidate them. They pump them for information. And like our Russian hosts decades past, these folks have a longer relationship with the secret police than they do with any of their students. Pupils come and go, but surveillance is forever.
So when there’s anything that might be the least bit sensitive — something the KGB, or the CCP might want to know about someone — the smart emigre is going to spill. It’s in their best interest; they survive by giving the secret police what they want.
To put it in Western terms, they’re only kept alive so the vampires can feed.
So here I am, on a weekday morning, erasing part of my text before I send it. It sounds paranoid, but here’s another key point — intelligence work runs on tiny bits of information — the kind that we think don’t mean anything, or aren’t important. Intelligence analysts, like I was, back in the day, put these things together — thousands or millions of tiny bits of information that are meaningless in themselves, but when amassed and organized, create an accurate picture of enemy strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, intentions. Which is why social media is such a gold mine for agencies like these…but that’s a topic for another day.
Let’s just leave it here for now, but remember — it’s their job, and they do it every day. They’re doing it now.
All this is to say that I understand the pressure my kid’s teacher may be under. I really, truly, and absolutely don’t want to blame the victim. It’s every person’s right to protect herself and her family in any way she can.
As parent, though, I have to do the same.
What’s your experience?
Have you or someone you know experienced government surveillance—either online or in person? Share your thoughts in the comments (anonymously if needed).
Help expose how authoritarian regimes monitor dissidents abroad. Share this piece with those who need to know how these systems operate.
Want to stay ahead of state surveillance tactics? Follow organizations like Human Rights Watch and Freedom House—because knowledge is power.
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This piece was originally published as Erasing My Words: The Subtle Fears Behind Conversations with My Child’s Mandarin Teacher on Medium on September 7, 2024.
I was right next to that dude when they took that photo. at least you have your head screwed on straight about the CCP. you clawed back a few points there.
here ya go, linguist this....
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