China A study by Mingshi Wu and Ali Zohaib et al from 2025 posits that regional censorship is the next iteration of the Great Firewall of China.69 Using data from seven different regions of China, the authors concluded that a more restrictive, regionalized censorship mechanism is occurring in Henan, one out of the seven regions they measured, and that this “localized censorship suggests a departure from China’s centralized censorship apparatus, enabling local authorities to exert a greater degree of control within their respective regions.” Leaked documents from Geedge Networks and Mesalab appear to confirm this emerging trend identified by Wu et al. J24: Xinjiang Context The Xinjiang region has been described as one of the most heavily surveilled regions in the world, with a unique concentration of high-tech systems designed to control and monitor the population. It is the home of 11 million Uyghur people, a linguistic and religious minority in China. Xinjiang has been called a testing ground, where tools are deployed, experimented with, and modified before being used on other populations.70 Xinjiang and Geedge The leak contains notes from a June 22, 2024 speech at the Xinjiang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (新 疆 分 中 心 ). The notes on the speech, likely taken by a Geedge employee, record that Geedge’s project “aims to transform the regional center into a vanguard force of anti-terrorism, particularly in circumvention suppression.”71 The notes mention that “the national (firewall) is evolving from a centralized to a distributed model” and that the Xinjiang regional center aims to “become a model for provincial (firewall) construction, which can be replicated or learned from elsewhere.” In the notes, the presenter argues that his branch center’s focus is not about targeting individuals, but rather how to use technology to combat the use of circumvention tools. Other documents from the Geedge leak indicate the company is building capability to do both. The meeting notes indicate some evidence of political connections, saying that a minister was briefed on the meeting in April 2024.