China’s extensive AI‑powered visual surveillance systems are already well documented. This report reveals new ways that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using large language models (LLMs) and other AI systems to automate censorship, enhance surveillance and pre‑emptively suppress dissent.
Drawing on LLM testing, detailed case studies and analyses of procurement documents, corporate filings and job postings, this data‑rich report traces how AI censorship mechanisms distort information and how predictive policing and biometric surveillance reinforce algorithmic repression. ASPI’s research shows that the CCP has created market‑based mechanisms to encourage private innovation in AI‑enabled censorship technology, making it easier and cheaper for companies to comply with censorship mandates.
This report also reveals how AI‑powered technology is widening the power differential between China’s state‑supported companies operating abroad and foreign populations—further enabling some Chinese companies to systematically violate the economic rights of vulnerable groups outside China, despite Beijing’s claims that China respects the development rights and sovereignty of other countries.
