Chinese data firm Zhenhua Data 'spied' on 10,000 eminent Indians; here are the details

As Parliament discusses reports of alleged spying by Shenzhen-based techlogy firm Zhenhua Data, Centre is currently looking into reports explaining major breach in data privacy of 10,000 eminent Indian citizens - including PM Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind, fifteen former Army chiefs, and several state Chief Ministers. An Indian express report highlighted how Zhenhua Data - which has links to Chinese Communist Party is spying on entities from United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Cana, Germany, India, and United Arab Emirates. This development comes amid ongoing 5-month long faceoff between India and China in Lakh's LAC.

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Who is Zhenhua 'spying' on?

As per report, Zhenhua which claims it works with Chinese intelligence, military, and security ncies allegedly 'spied' on 10,000 Indian entities and stored ir data in an Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB). list of entities who Zhenhua spied on include - Prime Minister Modi,  President Kovind, former PM Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Smriti Irani, 23 former and current Chief Secretaries, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, and several diplomats. Apart from Centre's politicians, Zhenhua allegedly spied on state-level politicians like Raman Singh, Ashok Chavan, Siddaramaiah, Uddhav Thackeray etc. Several eminent journalists, sportspersons, actors, start-up entrepreneurs, and top entrepreneurs and  Ratan Tata and Gautam ani were allegedly being spied upon.

report also points out that amid ongoing spat in Lakh, Zhenhua has allegedly spied on 30 prominent leers and bureaucrats from Jammu-Kashmir, Lakh, and rth-eastern states. entities include formerJ&K CM Mehbooba Mufti, MoS Sports Kiren Rijiju,  Meghalaya Chief Minister Conr Sangma, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to name a few. China and India are currently in talks to 'diseng and de-escalate' troops at LAC with India firm on a return to status quo.

With several key diplomats including 40 IFS officers (serving and retired) being allegedly spied upon, US tech giant - Facebook has allegedly banned Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Techlogy from its platform. Zhenhua has maintained that it was privately owned and h background in Chinese military or Chinese government, justifying its 'operation' as neir illegal r unreasonable, claims Indian Express. It has also stated that it collects information from public sources and t private information from confidential sources, state reports.

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What is govt's response to 'Chinese spying'?

same report was raised in Rajya Sabha's Zero Hour on Wednesday by Congress MP K C Venugopal, asking if government has taken any action in this regard. In response, Union External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar stated that government has taken up issue with Chinese envoy in India - Sun Weidong. He also stated that Chinese have denied ir involvement with 'alleged spying'. 

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" Chinese side conveyed that Shenzen Zhenhua is a private company and h stated its position publicly. In ir part, Chinese Foreign ministry maintained that re was connection between company concerned and Chinese government," said Jaishankar. Jaishankar said government has constituted an expert committee under National Cyber Security Coordinator to study se reports and evaluate ir implications - submitting a report within 30 days. A plea has been filed in Supreme Court seeking an inquiry into issue and an FIR to be registered under Cyber terrorism.

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