Prez Ram Nath Kovind, PM Modi, Sonia Gandhi: Key Indian personalities who China's Zhenhua has been tracking

A Chinese company, Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co, have been monitoring over 10,000 Indian individuals and collecting data on prominent Indian personalities including government officials, politicians, and industrialists, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The company, which was pulled down earlier this month, is believed to have stocked a global database of "foreign targets".

From India, the company has been monitoring President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi; Cabinet Ministers Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal; and also Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Singh Rawat and at least 15 former Chiefs of the Army, among many others, as per the report.

The list also includes chief ministers of various Indian states like Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) and Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) to Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh) along with former chief ministers Raman Singh, Ashok Chavan and Siddaramaiah.

Leaders of political parties such as the late M Karunanidhi of DMK, the late Kanshi Ram of Bahujan Samaj Party and RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav are also being monitored.

It also tracks the relatives of key personalities like PM Modi (wife Jashodaben); President Kovind (wife Savita Kovind); former PM Manmohan Singh (wife Gursharan Kaur and their daughters Upinder, Daman, Amrit); Sonia Gandhi (husband, the late Rajiv, son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra); Smriti Irani (husband Zubin Irani); Harsimrat Kaur (husband Sukhbir Singh Badal, brother Bikram Singh Majithia and father Satyajit Singh Majithia); Akhilesh Yadav (father Mulayam, wife Dimple, father-in-law R C Rawat, uncles Shivpal Singh and Ram Gopal).

Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde, Lokpal Justice P C Ghose and Comptroller and Auditor General G C Murmu are also under Zhenhua’s radar.

Among industrialists, Zhenhua has been tracking Ratan Tata and Gautam Adani and startup entrepreneurs like Nipun Mehra, founder of BharatPe, and Ajay Trehan of AuthBridge.

The Chinese firm’s target list also includes scientists, academicians, journalists, actors and sportspersons, as well as religious figures and activists; and hundreds accused of financial crime, corruption, terrorism, and smuggling of narcotics, gold, arms or wildlife.

The data was procured by the publication using the meta data from Zhenhua’s Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB). According to another report by The Indian Express, the company's 24x7 Artificial Intelligence monitoring tools collect information such as geographic locations, the target's personal information on social media accounts and their friends and relationships. The agency also analyses posts, likes and comments by friends and followers of the targets.

A Chinese Embassy source in Delhi told the publication, “China has not asked and will not ask companies or individuals to collect or provide data, information and intelligence stored within other countries’ territories for the Chinese government by installing “backdoors” or by violating local laws.”

“What I would like to point out is that the Chinese government has been asking Chinese companies to strictly abide by local laws and regulations when doing business overseas; this position will not change,” the Embassy source added.

Besides tracking Indian bureaucrats in key positions, Zhenhua also targets high-profile individuals from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.