Imagine an app used by the police and security services that contains information on everything from the apps on your phone to your electricity usage and bank account transactions.

This app is not something from an episode of Black Mirror — it's being used right now to monitor millions living in China's Xinjiang region.

This is the same region where over a million Uyghur Muslims are believed to be detained in secret camps for "re-education". But it's not just Xinjiang's Muslims who are being tracked – everyone in the region is being watched by an elaborate surveillance system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP).

Human Rights Watch revealed on Thursday how the app works, and the extreme level of surveillance which it enables. This should raise some questions for Australian organisations partnered with the company responsible for the system, China Electronics Technology Corporation (CETC).

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The right partner for our unis?

CETC is a Chinese-state owned military technology company — one of China's tech giants. It describes itself as "the most powerful national central corporation in the fields of defence electronics, security electronics and informatisation."

Human Rights Watch's research has revealed that CETC is ultimately responsible for the surveillance app, which was developed through a wholly-owned subsidiary company Hebei Far East Communication System Engineering Co. Ltd.

In a recent project mapping the global expansion of Chinese tech companies, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) found CETC partnership projects stretching from Papua New Guinea to Russia to South Africa. On its website, CETC claims to be operating in more than 110 countries and regions around the world.

And that includes Australia. In 2017, CETC signed a $20 million deal with University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to fund a research innovation centre. It was envisioned that the project would later expand to include other Australian and Chinese universities.

Research by ASPI has previously highlighted concerns around how technology developed in the project might be used by the Chinese government.

A report by researcher Elsa Kania singled out UTS's cooperation with CETC on dual-use AI research as an area of particular concern.

For example in 2018, UTS published information about CETC-linked research for a "Complex Data Condition Based Public Security Online Video Retrieval System", a project with clear potential surveillance applications.

The information revealed by Human Rights Watch adds weight to these fears.

We now know that CETC's technology is enabling mass surveillance, persecution of ethnic minorities and human rights violations. Universities need to ask themselves whether this is really a company they want to partner with.

Bordered by eight countries, Xinjiang is China's largest province. ( Supplied: Google Maps )

Chinese tech spreads its web of influence

CETC is far from the only company which is both supporting repression in Xinjiang and doing business in Australia.

In our research we found that Huawei is providing equipment, technical support and training to Xinjiang police, and will join an "intelligent security industry" innovation lab in the Xinjiang capital.

Huawei has been banned from supplying 5G equipment in Australia but continues to hold other major public contracts, including a recent $200 million contract with the Western Australian government for digital radios for Perth's train system.

Meanwhile, camera manufacturer Hikvision supplies hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of cameras to the surveillance program in Xinjiang. Many are equipped with advanced technology including facial recognition and audio recording capabilities.

Public tender records show that Hikvision cameras have been placed in at least 967 mosques in Xinjiang, where they are used to monitor Uyghurs and "ensure that imams stick to a 'unified' government script". Most troubling of all, Hikvision also provides equipment and services directly to the Chinese government's "re-education camps."

Up to a million Uyghur Muslims are believed to be detained in what China calls "vocational skills education centres". ( Reuters: Thomas Peter )

Hikvision cameras are in wide use across Australia, including holding government contracts. An ABC investigation last year found many cameras placed in politically sensitive locations.

China's companies are actively seeking to export their surveillance technologies and expertise. The CETC subsidiary responsible for the app analysed by Human Rights Watch is also central to a mass surveillance program in Ecuador, for example.

Chinese surveillance technology is also making its way into Australia.

In April it was revealed that Darwin Council plans to implement "smart city" technology from Shenzhen, including "virtual fences" which will trigger an alert if crossed.

Darwin Council's Innovation Manager Josh Sattler told the NT News that the project will include "poles fitted with speakers, cameras and Wi-Fi [which] allow council to gain data on how many people walk on what footpaths and where they use certain websites and apps in the city."

UTS says it takes seriously how its research is applied in the real world. ( UTS: Supplied )

Australian research can be repurposed

UTS says that none of its work with CETC "is related to technologies being used in the Xinjiang region, according to the [Human Rights Watch] report."

Yet some of the key research fields in the partnership should be of particular concern. In a press release, UTS stated the project would focus on big visual data analytics, mobile sensing and communications and the Internet of Things.

From UTS's own website we know the collaboration includes research into "public security online video retrieval" systems. These are precisely the kinds of technology which are being employed by CETC's surveillance platform in Xinjiang.

Take big visual data analytics for example.

The lynchpin of the IJOP system is a near-ubiquitous network of CCTV cameras in streets, public buildings, schools, offices and mosques across Xinjiang.

Many of these cameras are equipped with facial recognition, license plate recognition and night vision capabilities.

Analysing the vast amounts of data gathered by these cameras has spawned a cottage industry of AI companies in China, each competing for contracts to help automate the government's surveillance program. To date, however, the promises of these companies often outstrip their capabilities.

There is no suggestion that UTS researchers would intentionally collaborate with CETC to improve its surveillance system in Xinjiang.

However, there is a very real risk that advancements in technologies such as big visual data analytics made by Australian researchers in partnership with CETC might be re-purposed for other ends.

Considering this new information from Human Rights Watch's investigation, Australian organisations need to ask themselves whether partnering with companies like CETC is worth that risk.

Elise Thomas is a writer and security researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.