China is mining social media platforms, including [Facebook] and [Twitter] , to harvest data on western targets for its military, police and government agencies. The government is purchasing newer and more sophisticated data surveillance systems to collect information on foreign entities, according to the Washington Post which reviewed bidding documents and contracts for over 300 Chinese government projects dating back to early 2020. The documents revealed a the purchase of a $320,000 Chinese state media software that mines social media to create a database of foreign journalists and academics. Officials also purchased a $216,000 [Beijing](/news/beijing/index.html) police intelligence program that targets...