When she returned to her hometown in central China last winter for the lunar new year, she didn't pay much attention to the social media site. She had around 100 followers on an account that she didn't know who she was.
While living in China, she made comments on Chinese platforms that were not allowed in the US, like supporting Hong Kong's protesters and her solidarity with minorities who have been imprisoned.
It was enough for the authorities to pursue her. The police knocked on her parents door. She said they summoned her to the station, questioned her, and then ordered her to take her account down. When she went overseas to study, they continued to track her and called her and her mother to ask if she had recently visited any human rights websites.
The Chinese government has built an extensive digital infrastructure and security apparatus to control dissent on its own platforms, and is going to even greater lengths to extend its internet dragnet to silence those who criticize the country on social media.
According to a New York Times examination of government procurement documents and legal records, as well as interviews with one government contractor and six people pressured by the police, these new investigations are relying on sophisticated technological methods to expand the reach of Chinese authorities and the list of targets.
Security forces use advanced investigation software, public records and databases to find people and their information. Those living beyond China's borders are sometimes targeted by the operations. Police officers are looking for dissidents like Ms. Chen, as well as Chinese people living overseas.
The digital hunt is a part of the government's campaign to counter negative portrayals of China. In recent years, the Communist Party has deployed bot armies, deployed diplomats and marshaledinfluencers to drown out criticism. The police have taken it a step further and silenced those who dare to speak up.
The authorities in China are trying to get critics to remove criminal content from their websites. A video recording provided by a Chinese student in Australia shows how the police in her hometown summoned her father, called her and pushed her to take her account down.
The new tactics raise questions about the spread of powerful investigative software and bustling data markets that can make it easy to track even the most cautious social media user on international platforms. Chinese deals to acquire American technology companies have been blocked multiple times by the U.S. regulators. They have not done much to control the availability of online services that offer location data, social media records and personal information.
The effort is a daring expansion of the Chinese security forces' previous focus on Chinese platforms and overseas dissidents. The case of Ms. Chen, quoting, "I stand with Hong Kong", can bring swift repercussions.
There have been more actions against people in China for speaking out on social media. The database is compiled by an anonymous activist and records cases based on publicly available verdicts, police notices and news reports.
Yaxue Cao, editor of ChinaChange.org, a website that covers civil society and human rights, said that the net has been cast wider overseas. She said the goal is to encourage self-censorship among Chinese people on global social media.
She said that they cut down the things that looked spindly and tall. The taller grass no longer covers the lower ones. They said, "Oh these are problematic too, let's mow them down again."
Chinese security authorities are bringing new technical expertise and funding to the process, according to publicly available procurement documents, police manuals and the government contractor who is working on overseas internet investigations.
The police in the western province of Gansu wanted to use companies to monitor international social media, so they created a grading system. One criterion included a company's ability to analyze accounts. A May procurement document shows that the police in Shanghai offered a technology firm money for every investigation into an overseas account.
The contractor who was not approved to speak publicly about the work said that such work often begins with a single post on social media. He said he used voter registries, driver's license records and hacked databases on the dark web to find the people behind the posts. Personal photos posted online can be used to find friends.
The image is.
Mr. Xi was in March. The father of a Chinese student was summoned by the police over a parody account she created to mock Mr. Xi.
The types of speech crimes that investigators seek out are listed in a Chinese police manual and examination for online security professionals. One refers to a plan to politically organize or protest, two are related to the promotion of liberal ideology and the third is related to pornography. Monitoring activity on foreign websites was called for in the manual.
The contractor said that he used the rankings to classify the things he submitted to his bosses. Key details about each person he looked into, including personal and career information, professional and family connections to China, as well as a statistical analysis of the reach of the person's account, were listed in a sample document reviewed by The Times. His approach was supported by documents and guides.
He was assigned to investigate a group of Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States, a Chinese American policy analyst who is a U.S. citizen, and journalists who worked in China.
Those caught up in the dragnet are often confused by how the authorities linked them to anonymous social media accounts.
The Chinese student in Australia gave the video recording from her police questioning, and she recalled the terror she felt when she first received a call from her father in China. The police told him to go to the station because she had created a parody account to mock China's leader. She did not want to be named because of concerns about reprisals.
The police told her via her father's phone that her account was being used from Australia. Her father told her to listen to the police.
They summoned him again three weeks later. When she returned to China, they told her to report to the station and ask how long her Australian visa was valid. She denied owning the account but filmed the call and kept it up. A few months later, it was suspended.
The account was restored after an inquiry from The Times.
The image is.
There was a pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong. Ms. Chen's post, "I stand with Hong Kong," brought swift repercussions.
It can be steep. He said that his parents went missing for 10 days when he criticized China. His social media accounts in China were immediately shut down.
The student said he didn't know what had happened to his parents. They told him that security forces were watching them.
Eric Liu, a censorship analyst at China Digital Times, said that those who live abroad are scared. He said that Chinese users were becoming more careful and that they were setting their accounts to private mode out of fear. The account is public, but Mr. Liu searches for Chinese security officials who might be watching him.
Ms. Chen moved to Europe this fall for graduate school and the police harassment continued. She has struggled with feelings of shame and powerlessness as she has weighed the importance of her political views against the risks that now entails. Her mother was adamant that she change her ways, which caused a rift in her relationship with her.
Ms. Chen said that she would worry about her safety if she had a Chinese passport. She said it was frustrating to have her voice taken away because she didn't have a lot of influence.
She said she would continue to post, even though she was more cautious.
Even though it is dangerous, she has to move forward step by step. I have to stop censoring myself. I have to stop cowering.
Ang Li was involved in the production. John was involved in research.
