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China Unicom (Myanmar) Operations Company Limited China Unicom is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator that operates a fully owned subsidiary in Myanmar: China Unicom (Myanmar) Operations Co. Ltd.57 It has implemented Geedge systems at its data centres in Yangon and Mandalay. In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoked China Unicom (Americas) Operations Limited's authority to provide telecommunications services in the United States, citing national security risks.58 This action stemmed from concerns about potential threats to the nation's telecommunications infrastructure, the company's ties to the Chinese government and ability to safeguard data.59 As a result, China Unicom was required to cease its domestic and international telecommunications services in the USA by 4 April 2022. The company has also maintained its operations in Russia, through its subsidiary China Unicom (Russia), following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions.60 In 2014, China Unicom initiated a US$50 million China-Myanmar cross-border optical cable system, which was first put into operation in 2017.61 China Unicom's activities in Myanmar also involve the construction of an AAE-undersea cable system in partnership with MPT.62 Golden TMH Telecom Company Limited Golden TMH Telecom Company Limited was incorporated in October 2014 and provides fibre, wireless and satellite access technologies across ten data centres in Myanmar.63 It has implemented Geedge technology in its Yangon data centre. The company is part of Tah Moe Hnye Group Investment and Development Co Ltd, a Yangon and Naypyidaw-based conglomerate that operates dozens of joint ventures and subsidiaries across various sectors in Myanmar, including power, energy, petroleum, telecommunication, timber, mining, real estate, industry and tourism.64 The Group lists, as its partners, multiple military-controlled ministries and entities and foreign partners from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.65 Golden TMH Telecom's sister company, Golden TMH International Company Limited, was formed in November 2021, after the military's coup attempt and is a registered supplier to the Myanmar military's directorate of procurement. Golden 24

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

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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.

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

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