They are pretty well known to go after US-based people (Chinese .. and non-Chinese citizens) by threatening friends and family still living in China, in response to various issues, or simply criticism. For espionage. To force them to return to China. To help them force other Chinese back. To force out Buddhism. And I'm sure that list has not gotten shorter.
In a few cases even non-Chinese citizens whose friends became "reachable" for the Chinese government.
TikTok would be an excellent source of information for this practice.
I'm sure it can be used to narrow down candidates for espionage. It is just more data points to figure out who and what levers need to be pull to provide the necessary incentives.
In a few cases even non-Chinese citizens whose friends became "reachable" for the Chinese government.
TikTok would be an excellent source of information for this practice.
Examples:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/fbi-chief-china-threa...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-wray/china-coer...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/you-could-end-...
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/21/china-government-threats...