Previous 45 / 47 Next

55 Justice For Myanmar (2020), ‘Nodes of Corruption, Lines of Abuse,' op. cit. 56 Myanmar Business Today (2014), ‘Vietnamese Telecom Firm Enters Myanmar,' Myanmar Business Today website, 28 September, [accessed online], https://mmbiztoday.com/vietnamese-telecom-firm-enters-myanmar/; Terabit Wave Company Limited, 'VNPT signed MOU with Terabit Wave,' Terabit Wave website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://www.terabitwave.com/news.html 57 China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (2024), 'Annual Report 2024,' China Unicom website, [accessed online], https:// www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/ir/reports/ar2024.pdf 58 Federal Communications Commission (2022), 'China Unicom Stop US Services,' FCC website, [accessed online], https://www.fcc.gov/ consumers/guides/china-unicom-stop-us-services 59 The Select Committee on the CCP (2025), 'House Committee subpoenas Chinese telecom giants after refusal to disclose CCP and military links,' House Select Committee on the CCP website, 24 April, [accessed online], https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/ media/press-releases/house-committee-subpoenas-chinese-telecom-giants-after-refusal-disclose-ccp 60 China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (2024), 'Annual Report 2024,' China Unicom website, [accessed online], https:// www.chinaunicom.com.hk/en/ir/reports/ar2024.pdf 61 Xinhua News Agency (2017), ‘China Unicom’s Myanmar cable project completes first commercial circuit,' IM Silk Road website, 26 October, [accessed online], https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/66334.html 62 Ibid. 63 DataCenter Map, ‘Golden TMH Telecom Co Ltd GTMH,' DataCenter Map, [accessed online], https://www.datacentermap.com/c/golden- tmh-telecom-co-ltd-gtmh/ 64 Tah Moe Hnye Group, 'About Us,' TMH Group website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://tmhgroupmm.com/about-us/ 65 Tah Moe Hnye Group, 'Business Scope,' TMH Group website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://tmhgroupmm.com/ business-scope/ 66 GTMH Telecom, 'Partners,' GTMH Telecom website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://www.gtmh-telecom.com/partners/ 67 Tah Moe Hnye Group, 'Business Scope,' TMH Group website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://tmhgroupmm.com/ business-scope/ 68 'Myanmar Broadband Telecom Co Ltd,' LinkedIn website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://mm.linkedin.com/company/ myanmar-broadband-telecom-co--ltd 69 TROY Information Technology (2017), ‘Announcement of collaboration strategy,' China Next website, 22 November, [accessed online], http://chinext.zqrb.cn/pdf/20171121/news-182-444953.pdf 70 Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program (2024), ‘Regional Investment Framework 2025-2027' Greater Mekong website, September [accessed online], https://www.greatermekong.org/g/sites/default/files/SERCRIF%202025-2027_final%20web%20PDF_4OCT.pdf 71 Ibid. 72 China-ASEAN Information Harbor website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://www.caih.com/?lang=en_US 73 Dr Ngeow Chow-Bing (2021), 'China-ASEAN Information Harbor: The Digital Silk Road from Guangxi to Southeast Asia,' Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, August [accessed online], https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/indonesien/18185.pdf; 'CAIH Info Tech Malaysia,' LinkedIn website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://www.linkedin.com/company/caih-info-tech-malaysia 74 'China-ASEAN Information Harbor Co Ltd,' CN Verify website, [last accessed on September 2, 2025], https://www.cnverify.com/ company/China-Asean-Information-Harbor-Co-Ltd; Luz Ding (2020), 'Is Alibaba backed navigation service Qianxun at risk from US sanctions?' The China Project website, 16 November, [accessed online], https://thechinaproject.com/2020/11/16/is-alibaba-backednavigation-service-qianxun-at-risk-from-u-s-sanctions/ 42

Select target paragraph3

● ● ●

Silk Road of Surveillance: The role of China's Geedge Networks and Myanmar telecommunications operators in the junta's digital terror campaign

Report

Preview

Language

Burmese
English

Topic

Digital Rights
Digital Surveillance
Internet Restrictions
Military Coup

Author(s)

Justice for Myanmar

Date Published: Sep 9, 2025

Abstract: A new leaked dataset reveals the Chinese company Geedge Networks’ business in Myanmar and exposes a significant number of telecommunications companies that are implementing sophisticated surveillance and censorship technology on behalf of the illegal Myanmar military junta. The leaked dataset offers detailed insights into the inner workings of Chinese internet surveillance and censorship technology that is exported to Myanmar by a company that frames its work as associated with China's Belt and Road Initiative. The dataset has been reviewed by a coalition of media and non-governmental/civil society organisations through the Great Firewall Export project made up of Amnesty International, InterSecLab, the Globe and Mail, Paper Trail Media, Tor Project, DER STANDARD, and Follow The Money. The Internet in Myanmar since the military’s February 2021 illegal coup attempt is among the most restricted in the world. The rolling out of a commercialised version of China’s Great Firewall gives the junta unprecedented access to and control over the online activities of 33.4 million internet users in Myanmar. Notably, the hardware, software and support provided by Geedge Networks to the Myanmar military junta enables the tracking of network traffic at the individual level and can identify the geographic location of mobile subscribers in real time by linking their activity to specific cell identifiers (cell IDs). As such, the junta has an enhanced capability to effectively track down, arrest, torture and kill human rights defenders, journalists and revolutionary forces across the country. The military junta can do so with the direct assistance of telecommunications companies in Myanmar exposed in the dataset – including ATOM (formerly Telenor Myanmar), Mytel, Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), Ooredoo Myanmar, Frontiir, StreamNet , Golden TMH Telecom, Internet Maekhong Network (IM-Net), Myanmar Broadband Telecom (MBT), Myanmar Telecommunication Network (MTN), Campana, Global Technology Group and China Unicom – that are integral to the set-up of a national firewall for the Myanmar junta. This investigation into the business dealings of Geedge Networks with the Myanmar junta builds on a June 2024 report by Justice For Myanmar into how Geedge was initiating country-wide internet surveillance and censorship through the junta-controlled Information Technology and Cyber Security Department (ITCSD) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC). 1 By providing hardware and software to the illegal Myanmar military junta, Geedge may be aiding and abetting in the commission of crimes against humanity, including the acts of torture and killing, carried out by members of the junta within a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population. Further investigation is required on this. In the meantime, Geedge Networks is limiting the rights to freedom of expression, association, and digital movement of the people of Myanmar. For that reason, Geedge Networks should be targeted with international sanctions, and individuals in directive and leadership positions within the company should be investigated for aiding and abetting violations of international human rights laws and potentially also international crimes. Telecommunications companies identified in the Geedge dataset as supporting the junta’s online surveillance machinery should be held to account for the serious risks of online and offline violence, and de facto harms such as arrests, torture and killings, of Myanmar civilians. Geedge Networks is closely affiliated with the Chinese state and export of its systems to Myanmar align with the Belt and Road Initiative. China’s involvement in the mass surveillance and repression of the civilian population in Myanmar is part of a broader pattern in which the Chinese government remains a principal supplier of arms to the Myanmar junta, aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Link: source

Primary Documents

Silk+Road+of+Surveillance+EN.pdf
English
Download View
68bf940e16f5d1a5366ed274_Silk Road of Surveillance Exec Summary MM.pdf
Burmese
Download View

Myanmar Internet Project

Select target paragraph3

Silk Road of Surveillance: The role of China's Geedge Networks and Myanmar telecommunications operators in the junta's digital terror campaign

Primary Documents

Notifications