New Delhi/Canberra, Dec 14 (IANS) In a explosive data leak, around two million Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members who got secretly embedded in some of the world’s biggest companies, banks, media groups, universities and government agencies, have been exposed.
‘The Australian’ newspaper obtained the leaked database which apart from the names of around two million CCP members, has their party position, birth-date, national ID number and ethnicity.
Among the companies mentioned in the list are manufacturers such as Boeing and Volkswagen, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and banks like ANZ and HSBC. As per the documents, around 600 people at HSBC, Standard Chartered banks are CCP members.
“It is believed to be the first leak of its kind in the world,” The Australian journalist and Sky News host Sharri Markson said. “What’s amazing about this database is not just that it exposes people who are members of the Communist Party, and who are now living and working all over the world, from Australia to the US to the UK, but it’s amazing because it lifts the lid on how the party operates under President and Chairman Xi Jinping,” she added.
Around 79,000 CCP branches have been set up inside western companies where members, if called on, are answerable directly to the Communist Party and President Xi himself, the reports said.
Over 100 references to India, in codewords, surfaced in the database as well. Cryptic names such as The Indian Army, Zhu India School, the founding of India, India Love Jane, Indian red, Indian eagle, India Xiaofu, Zhang India Tiger, Zhang India, Wei Gen India, India and Peace, Wang India, Inter-Indian steel, Kong Qing India, Sang Jia India, Indian eagle, Lu India sister, India wins, Indian temple root, Pan India Moon, India Xiaolei, India Guoping, India reached, Wang India, Zhou India Dream, Indo-Indian, India goes with the clock, Indian rain, Hua India Circuit Board Co., Ltd., appeared in the list.
Similarly, India flies far away, Xu India, Indian talent, Indian temple red, India seven sisters, India’s big brother, India little sister, Hooper India, The ageing branch of The Indian Village, Indian comfort army, Ren Shuai India, Money in India, Indian Autumn Jubilee, India is a great country, The King of India, The Indian army is good were also mentioned.
The database mentioned Zhou India, India patriotic, Indian autumn celery, India Xiaohua, Indian crane, Indo-Indian, India and China, No.116 Wang India Village, Huang India sister, Indian family, Lin India Moon, India’s foundation, Cheng India macro, India, Qian India village, India comforts the country, India also smells, Indian Army, India’s good talent, Cheng India macro, 72 East India Home, Royal Bridge Village Indian team West Indo-House Circle 1, 22 in the East India Circle of Yuqiao village.
“It is also going to embarrass some global companies who appear to have no plan in place to protect their intellectual property from theft, from economic espionage,” Markson said.
The data was reportedly extracted from a server in Shanghai in 2016 by Chinese dissidents, who used it for counterintelligence purposes. It was later leaked to the international bipartisan group the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, before being sent to the international consortium of four media organisations–The Australian, the UK’s Mail on Sunday, Belgium’s De Standaard and a Swedish editor.
The Australian did not name the individual members on the list, only the companies they work for.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
