Beijing (AFP)

Studying President Xi Jinping's thinking and memorizing quotations from Beijing's strongman: a popular Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda app could also be used to spy on its users, according to a defense group of freedom on the internet.

The application, whose home page shows a photo of President Xi on a red background, is named "Xuexi Qiangguo".

According to Chinese media, it has been downloaded 130 million times since its launch in January by the Communist Party's propaganda department.

Presented as an educational tool, the app awards points to users when they share articles or answer questions correctly. But they must also provide a plethora of data, such as their location or email address, says the Open Technology Fund (OTF), a group funded by the US government and that fights for the freedom of the internet.

The terms of use of the application also state that its owners may be required to transmit other personal information - such as their fingerprints and their identity number - depending on the features they want to access.

While the Communist Party presents this app as "a way for citizens to prove their loyalty and study their country, the application studies them," ironically OTF on its website, referring to the ambiguous name of the application. In Mandarin, it can mean both "Study to make the country strong" but also "Study Xi to make the country strong".

To reach these conclusions, the Open Technology Fund was based on research by the German company Cure53, which specializes in cybersecurity.

- "She searches" -

"Xuexi Qiangguo" scans the user's smartphone as if to "try to find out which apps he has installed", whether they be game, travel or messenger apps, the company says.

The survey, conducted in August, focused only on the Android version of the application, which dominates the Chinese market.

"It's unusual to see so much data collected for an educational app," said Jane Manchun Wong, a specialist in mobile cybersecurity issues.

"It's like reading a book about this great country, but the book searches in one way or another your home," she notes to AFP.

The Chinese government is suspected of having more and more recourse to new technologies (CCTV, facial recognition ...) to monitor its population.

Last week, the United States blacklisted eight Chinese technology companies accused of participating in human rights abuses and serving police surveillance in Xinjiang (northwestern). This vast region with a Muslim majority, long hit by attacks, is the subject of a severe recovery by Beijing.

"This very intrusive app is just one more way to extend this digital control," says Sarah Aoun of the Open Technology Fund.

Chinese journalists are also urged to use "Xuexi Qiangguo" for a review next month to get their press card, according to a government notice released last week.

Contacted by AFP, the propaganda department of the Communist Party had not responded immediately.

© 2019 AFP