søndag 21. september 2025

Inside China’s Surveillance and Propaganda Industries: Where Profit Meets Party

China’s surveillance and propaganda industries are often depicted as a seamless extension of state power, directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from the top down. Yet the latest leaks from two firms, Geedge Networks and GoLaxy, reveal something more complex: a commercial ecosystem in which private companies compete for contracts, leverage academic ties, and build sophisticated products to satisfy both ideological demands and market pressures. 

Their stories show how repression in China is both a political imperative and a profitable business, one that increasingly crosses borders. Together, Geedge and GoLaxy illustrate how China is not only perfecting digital authoritarianism at home but also packaging it for export – posing deep challenges for democracies in the global race for AI supremacy.

Geedge Networks became visible when more than 100,000 internal files were leaked to a consortium of journalists, technologists, and human rights groups.