Under Chinese Law, CCP Can Monitor Americans Through Apps: China Expert

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Joining me now to continue our discussion of Taiwan's warning for users of Chinese apps is Joshua Phillip, senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times and host of Epoch TV's Crossroads. Josh, welcome. What are the national security implications of apps headquartered in China?

[00:00:17]>> Well, one of the biggest ones is that data may be sent to Chinese servers.

[00:00:22]Under Chinese law, including the national security law, uh any data in China needs to be both secure and quote controllable by the Chinese Communist Party. So, the CCP can basically monitor everything effectively. Uh and that that's been an ongoing concern when it comes to national security, state secrets, corporate secrets, uh anything that could be sensitive in terms of, you know, spying, hacking, even fraud, things like this. Um it's it's a real serious threat.

[00:00:51]>> Have there been any instances of the Chinese regime using information it collects via apps in order to harm American citizens?

[00:00:59]>> Um in terms of apps and in terms of evidence on that, not really uh direct, but there is evidence of them exploiting information stolen from, you know, cyber attacks, surveillance, and everything else. Uh we do know that TikTok has become a major concern, for example. Uh in terms of has the CCP leveraged it?

[00:01:16]You may never know because, of course, you know, they take the data, they transfer it, they use it inside China, and then use it outside the app. So, it's like imagine you have a database of information and people's names and identities. Uh you might not know when the attack is carried out where they got it. But, the fact is this basically leaves an open door just constantly there on everybody's phone. And if you understand what apps do, well, you know, when you do the terms of service, it's you grant them access to your phone calls, you grant them access to your contact list, you grant them access to your camera, to audio recording, off often times even when the app is not even activated. Uh it's access to your emails, to your browsing activity, sometimes to even key logging, so anything you type. Uh effectively, you're opening your phone up to become a becoming a spy device in your own pocket with these things.

[00:02:08]>> Yeah, and it's concerning, you know, for Americans, even if it was the the American government, but this is uh the Chinese government, the largest totalitarian regime on Earth.

[00:02:19]>> Well, and and the unfortunate reality is we know about Chinese economic theft. We also know about Chinese espionage and targeting persons who they believe are uh representative of what they call the civil society.

[00:02:30]Any business engaged with you know, any kind of competition, uh you might think that it's not a big deal, but anything you make, uh any product they see as a comp a competitor, you're going to be up for spying. Uh when it comes to their, you know, United Front Work Program, they target any person they deem part of what they call civil society. That means business leaders, government officials, it could be members of the military, anybody with a leadership position, it could be people involved in investment, even journalists, uh the heads of news agencies, even like TikTokers and YouTubers. Everybody will be targeted by them.

[00:03:08]>> And and Josh, the Canadian government signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Ministry of Public Security, but they haven't disclosed the details. Why is this ringing alarm bells up north?

[00:03:20]>> Well, because we're not getting the real details of what's going on. Uh Chinese espionage in Canada has been a long-standing issue. Back in the late '90s, there was what they there was a it was a report from China's uh sorry, from Canada's equivalent of the CIA, which is uh CSIS, and it was called Sidewinder, and at the time the head of the Canadian equivalent of the CIA said the Canadian government had been infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party. It was a very controversial paper, caused a lot of problems, but that I I that still does stand. Um there's also a lot of questions right now over Canadian cooperation with the Chinese what they call the Ministry of Public Security, which is the Chinese policing agency including the one behind the secret police stations.

[00:04:03]Uh, so I think there are some real questions about Canada, their level of cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party, whether that has anything to do with this, uh, but we don't quite we don't really know yet.

[00:04:15]>> Yeah, that really is concerning everything you just said there. Um, this MOU is one part of Canada's recent realignment toward Beijing um, in the in the in in recent times. Should that realignment sound alarm bells here in the United States?

[00:04:32]>> Well, definitely. Um, China's China's a funny issue though when it comes to international security because in terms of business, a lot of countries do business with China. Uh, in terms of military, many countries regard the Chinese Communist Party as their number one threat. And it it's a bit of a schizophrenic type policy we have with them where, you know, we're intertwined in terms of financial interests but at each other's throats when it comes to military and espionage.

[00:05:01]Uh, it's very it's fairly well known they use debt traps as a normal form of business. It's fairly well known they use economic theft as a way of, you know, basically undermining competition.

[00:05:12]They use state-run companies as a way to undercut and then establish monopolies.

[00:05:17]Uh, they use theft, currency manipulation, you know, everything on the books. And people might say, "Well, what about tariffs?" Yeah, well, they tariff us, too. Uh, they use everything on the books effectively to undermine the economies of other countries alongside different forms of bribery, blackmail, and political warfare. So, you we're not competing on fair grounds with them. And and the policies are oftentimes very two-faced. Uh, they don't always make total sense. There's a lot of cognitive dissonance with it.

[00:05:46]>> Josh, all of what we're discussing here seems to fall under China's unrestricted warfare doctrine. Explain this concept for our audience and what you think the United States should do about it.

[00:05:57]>> Well, unrestricted warfare was a book written by two Chinese colonels in the late 90s and you know, was never official policy but among people who work in defense, a lot of China watchers, it's regarded as effectively a roadmap of what we can see them doing on the surface. The reason it's taking it's taken seriously as if it were policy is because we know they do every single thing listed in what these colonels basically proposed. What it what it proposed was a war using 72 forms of unconventional warfare, non-military, trans-military and unconventional military.

[00:06:32]This included drug warfare like fentanyl. This included for example, culture warfare like the takeover of Hollywood. This included economic warfare, currency manipulation, cyberattacks and then it gets to the military spectrum and then into the more concerning side which is unconventional military things like biological warfare.

[00:06:53]All of this was proposed in that document and to some degree we see every single part of it getting carried out.

[00:07:00]>> You know, I've been studying this for years and every time I hear about it from someone like you Josh, it's always shocking. Senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times, Joshua Phillips, thank you.

[00:07:12]>> Thank you.