- China Revival or Zhenhua Data Information Technology has amassed a database of over 2.4 million prominent personalities from India, China, the UK, the US, Japan, Canada, and other countries.
- The Chinese big data analytics company mostly collected open-source data, but researcher Christopher Balding estimates that at least 10% to 20% of it was obtained using less-than-legal ways.
- Here’s the full list of leading politicians, journalists, military officials, industrialists, and other prominent personalities that the Shenzhen-based technology company was tracking.
A Chinese technology company called Zhenhua Data Information Technology, also called China Revival, has been tracking over 2.4 million people across India, Australia, the UK, the US, Japan, and Canada to create the Overseas Key Information Database (OKID).
Although a private company, a new study led by Australian researcher Christopher Balding shows that China Revival was selling this data to the government. However, not all of the data collected was open source. The
Indian Express revealed that over 10,000 Indians were being tracked, the
Telegraph reported that over 9,000 Britons were on the company’s radar and
ABC Australia found 35,000 Australians were under the company’s surveillance.
Country
| Number of people under surveillance
|
US
| 52,000
|
Australia
| 35,000
|
India
| 10,000
|
UK
| 9,700
|
Canada
| 5,000
|
Indonesia
| 2,100
|
Malaysia
| 1,400
|
New Zealand
| 793
|
Papua New Guinea
| 138
|
Source: The Telegraph
The data mining operation covered top political figures like Prime Ministers of India, Australia, and the UK — Narendra Modi, Scott Morrison, and Boris Johnson, respectively — and their families.
China Revival was also gathering information on military officials, leading industrialists, national icons, journalists, and even some not-so-reputable names like India’s self-proclaimed God woman, Radhe Maa, and Australian fraudster, Robert Andrew Kirsopp.
Here’s the list of the people Chinese big data analytics company China Revival was tracking:Country
| Designation
| Name
|
India
| Prime Minister
| Narendra Modi
|
India
| President
| Ram Nath Kovind
|
India
| Congress President
| Sonia Gandhi
|
India
| Chief Minister of West Bengal
| Mamata Banerjee
|
India
| Chief Minister of Rajasthan
| Ashok Gehlot
|
India
| Chief Minister of Maharashtra
| Uddhav Thackeray
|
India
| Chief Minister of Punjab
| Amarinder Singh
|
India
| Chief Minister of Odisha
| Naveen Patnaik
|
India
| Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
| Shivraj Singh Chouhan
|
India
| Minister of Defence
| Rajnath Singh
|
India
| Minister of Finance
| Nirmala Sitharaman
|
India
| Minister of Textiles
| Smriti Irani
|
India
| Minister of Commerce and Industry
| Piyush Goyal
|
India
| Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)
| General Bipin Rawat
|
India
| Chief Justice of India
| Sharad Bobde
|
India
| Judge
| AM Khanwilkar
|
India
| Founder of Bharat Pe
| Nipun Mehra
|
India
| Indian industrialist
| Ratan Tata
|
India
| Chairman of Adani Group
| Gautam Adani
|
India
| Actor-turned-politician
| Hema Malini
|
India
| Actor-turned-politician
| Anupam Kher
|
India
| Actor-turned-politician
| Moon Moon Sen
|
India
| Actor-turned-politician
| Paresh Rawal
|
India
| Actor-turned-politician
| Vinod Khanna
|
India
| Former cricketer
| Sachin Tendulkar
|
India
| Director
| Shyam Benegal
|
India
| Political family
| Gandhis
|
India
| Political family
| Pawars
|
India
| Political family
| Scindias
|
India
| Political family
| Sangmas
|
India
| Political family
| Badals
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh
| Raman Singh
|
India
| Maharashtra Cabinet Minister
| Ashok Chavan
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
| Late M Karunanidhi
|
India
| Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Politician
| Late Kanshi Ram
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Bihar
| Lalu Prasad Yadav
|
India
| Indian diplomat
| Harsh Vardhan Shringla
|
India
| Hindu Group Chairman
| N Ravi
|
India
| Zee News Editor-in-Chief
| Sudhir Chaudhary
|
India
| India Today Group Consulting Editor
| Rajdeep Sardesai
|
India
| Former Media Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Officer
| Sanjaya Baru
|
India
| The Indian Express Chief Editor
| Raj Kamal Jha
|
India
| Classical dancer
| Sonal Mansingh
|
India
| Former Akal Takht
| Jathedar Gurbachan Singh
|
India
| Self-styled God woman
| Radhe Maa (Sukhwinder Kaur)
|
India
| Nirankari Mission
| Hardev Singh
|
India
| Former President
| Pranab Mukherjee
|
India
| Former President
| APJ Abdul Kalam
|
India
| Former Prime Minister
| Manmohan Singh
|
India
| Former Prime Minister
| Late PV Narasimha Rao
|
India
| Former Prime Minister
| Late AB Vajpayee
|
India
| Former Prime Minister
| HD Deve Gowda
|
India
| Former Prime Minister
| Late Rajiv Gandhi
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
| Kamal Nath
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Haryana
| Bhupinder Singh Hooda
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Gujarat
| Shankar Vaghela
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of West Bengal
| Buddhadeb Bhattacharajee
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
| Kiran Kumar Reddy
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Goa
| Late Manohar Parrikar
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
| Mulayam Singh Yadav
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
| Late N Janardhana Reddy
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of Karnataka
| Late SR Bommai
|
India
| Former Chief Minister of West Bengal
| Late Jyoti Basu
|
India
| Congress MP
| Shashi Tharoor
|
India
| Former BJP MP
| Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda
|
India
| BJP MP
| Meenakshi Lekhi
|
India
| TMC MP
| Abhishek Banerjee
|
India
| Former BJD MP
| Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo
|
India
| Former Congress MP
| Divya Spandana
|
UK
| Prime Minister
| Boris Johnson
|
UK
| Labour leader
| Keir Starmer
|
UK
| Tory MP
| Tom Tugendhat
|
UK
| Tory MP
| Bob Seely
|
UK
| Former Prime Minister
| Tony Blair
|
UK
| Former Deputy Prime Minister
| John Prescott
|
UK
| Former Tory MP
| David Lidington
|
UK
| Tory MP
| Anne-Marie Trevelyan
|
UK
| Former Lib Dem MP
| Norman Lamb
|
UK
| Tory MP
| Paul Scully
|
UK
| Former Tory MP
| Richard Harrington
|
UK
| Labour MP
| Rosena Allin-Khan
|
UK
| Former Lib Dem leader
| Tim Farron
|
UK
| Former MP
| Theresa May
|
UK
| Labour MP
| Wes Streeting
|
UK
| Former Home Secretary
| Roy Jenkins
|
UK
| Former Tory MP
| Dominic Grieve
|
UK
| Tory MP
| James Cleverly
|
UK
| Tory MP
| Andrew Bridgen
|
UK
| Tory MP
| Julian Knight
|
UK
| Military
| Sir Nick Carter
|
UK
| Military
| Sir George Zambellas
|
UK
| Military
| Richard Barrons
|
UK
| Military
| General Richard Dannatt
|
UK
| Military
| Ben Key
|
UK
| Military
| Alasdair Walker
|
UK
| Military
| Peter Hudson
|
UK
| Military
| Anthony Dymock
|
UK
| Military
| Tony Radakin
|
UK
| Military
| Malcolm Pledger
|
UK
| Military
| Adrian Johns
|
UK
| Military
| Paul Lambert
|
UK
| Military
| Trevor Soar
|
UK
| Military
| Alan Massey
|
UK
| Military
| David Richards
|
UK
| Military
| John Dunt
|
UK
| Military
| Jonathan Band
|
UK
| Military
| General Sir Peter Wall
|
UK
| Business
| Tesco
|
UK
| Business
| KPMG
|
UK
| Business
| BP
|
UK
| Business
| Glaxosmithkline
|
UK
| Business
| Barclays
|
UK
| Business
| British American Tabacco
|
UK
| Business
| British Gas
|
UK
| Business
| Astrazeneca
|
UK
| Business
| Unilever
|
UK
| Business
| Richard Desmond
|
UK
| Business
| HSBC
|
UK
| Business
| Bae Systems
|
UK
| Business
| Babcock International
|
UK
| Business
| Huawei
|
UK
| Academics
| The Henry Jackson Society
|
UK
| Academics
| International Institute of Strategic Studies
|
UK
| Academics
| Royal United Services Institute
|
UK
| Academics
| University of Oxford
|
UK
| Academics
| University of Cambridge
|
UK
| Academics
| University of Durham
|
UK
| Academics
| University of Portsmouth
|
UK
| Academics
| Imperial College London
|
UK
| Academics
| University College London
|
UK
| Academics
| Institute for Fiscal Studies
|
UK
| Academics
| Centre for Policy Studies
|
UK
| Royals
| The Queen
|
UK
| Royals
| Princess Diana
|
UK
| Royals
| Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
|
UK
| Royals
| Prince Harry
|
UK
| Royals
| Prince Philip
|
UK
| Royals
| Prince Edward
|
UK
| Royals
| Prince William
|
UK
| Royals
| Prince Charles
|
UK
| Royals
| Prince Michael
|
UK
| Royals
| Princess Anne
|
UK
| Royals
| Mark Phillips
|
UK
| Royals
| Zara Tindall
|
UK
| Royals
| Peter Phillips
|
Australia
| Prime Minister
| Scott Morrison
|
Australia
| Atlassian billionaire
| Mike Cannon-Brookes
|
Australia
| Atlassian billionaire
| Scott Farquhar
|
Australia
| Businessman
| David Gonski
|
Australia
| Businessman
| Jennifer Westacott
|
Australia
| Victorian Supreme Court Judge
| Anthony Cavanough
|
Australia
| Retired Navy Admiral and former Lockheed Martin chief executive
| Raydon Gates
|
Australia
| Former ambassador to China
| Geoff Raby
|
Australia
| Former Foreign Minister
| Bob Carr
|
Australia
| Singer
| Natalie Imbruglia
|
Australia
| One Nation co-founder
| David Oldfield
|
Australia
| David Oldfield
| Larry Anthony
|
Australia
| Former Labor MP
| Emma Husar
|
Australia
| News Corp journalist
| Ellen Whinnett
|
Australia
| ABC director
| Georgie Somerset
|
Australia
| Self-proclaimed Perth sheikh
| Junaid Thorne
|
Australia
| Fraudster
| Robert Andrew Krisopp
|
Australia
| Former-TEAC boss
| Late Gavin Muir
|
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