Marc Hofer, a cybersecurity researcher, stumbled on an obscure site called the Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel earlier this year, where his photograph, passport number, and a former mobile number appeared alongside 700 other foreigners in Zhangjiakou. The platform, which held close to 12,000 entries, listed wanted individuals, people from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and over 300 foreign reporters—many never having visited the city. The New York Times linked the site to the Beijing firm Origin Dynamic, which sells robotics and surveillance gear to police and holds a 2023 patent for an "information interface" for non‑Chinese citizens; part of the company is owned by Yancheng officials. The database logged movements, hospital visits, gas payments, travel tickets, and even seat numbers, feeding on cameras, the nearby Thaiwoo Ski Resort roster, utility records, and face‑scanning software. Users were grouped as the "Five Eyes Alliance," "key countries" (Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan), and separate folders for Hong Kong and Taiwan, plus categories for foreign students, spouses, and "key persons." The site vanished by May, but its existence underscores how Chinese authorities stitch together data from cameras, health files, utilities, and face‑recognition to monitor non‑citizens, mirroring the surveillance of the country’s 1.4 billion residents.

The discovery raises questions about the real‑world use of such databases and the privacy risks for foreigners living or working in China.

Key takeaway: Chinese surveillance systems now extend far beyond citizens, aggregating personal data from multiple sources into integrated platforms like the Dynamic Control Platform.

Expert insight: "The platform shows a sophisticated, data‑driven approach to tracking foreigners, combining traditional intelligence methods with modern digital surveillance."