Cross posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42251606
Full details, including technical material and download links, are available at the GFW Report. The hacktivists behind this leak warn that downloading and examining these files should only be done in isolated environments.
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The largest leak linked to the Great Firewall of China surfaced online, with nearly 600 GB of material allegedly containing source code, internal communications, work logs, and technical documentation from groups said to be involved in building and maintaining the system.
The data was leaked by Enlace Hacktivista, previously linked to the Cellebrite data leak. The collective claims that the documents were traced to Geedge Networks and the MESA Lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Information Engineering. Both have long been central to the Firewall’s research and development, with Geedge led by Fang Binxing, often called the “Father of the Great Firewall.”
According to the files, their reach spreads outside China’s borders, supplying censorship and surveillance technology to governments in Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and others linked to the Belt and Road Initiative.
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The published material is available for download through both BitTorrent and direct links. The package includes a massive mirror/repo.tar file weighing 500 GB, basically an archive of the RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) packaging server, alongside compressed document sets from Geedge and MESA. In total, the files contain tens of thousands of pages and repositories, offering a rare window into the infrastructure behind the Firewall.
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Even before digging deeper into the source code, the structure of the leaked archive gives clear insight into things. For example, geedge_docs.tar.zst and mesalab_docs.tar.zst contain thousands of internal reports, project descriptions, and technical proposals. File names like CTF-AWD.docx, BRI.docx, and CPEC.docx suggest connections to Belt and Road Initiative projects and international collaborations.
Project management records, such as geedge_jira.tar.zst, highlight day-to-day coordination between researchers and engineers, while communication drafts, like chat.docx and multiple schedule documents, show the granular planning that went into censorship operations. Even routine administrative files such as 打印.docx (Print) and reimbursement-related proofs indicate how deeply routine and bureaucratic this apparatus has become
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The background included in the leak provides a detailed timeline of MESA’s formation and growth. Established in 2012 at the Institute of Information Engineering, MESA grew quickly through talent programs, research grants, and government contracts. By 2016, it was handling projects worth more than 35 million yuan annually and contributing to national-level awards in cybersecurity.
When Geedge Networks was founded in 2018 in Hainan, Fang Binxing served as its chief scientist, bringing with him a cadre of MESA researchers and students. The company soon became a key private partner to Chinese authorities, supporting censorship operations not only domestically but also as an exporter of surveillance solutions abroad.
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Experts may need months to analyse the source code, but the documents already back up what many observers have been claiming for years. The Great Firewall is not a fixed system; it is a growing network shaped by government contracts, research institutes, and private companies.
The hacktivists behind this leak warn that downloading and examining these files should only be done in isolated environments. Given the sensitivity of the content, there is always the risk that malware or tracking elements could be embedded in the archives. Still, for researchers and rights groups, the trove offers an opportunity to understand how the Firewall operates and how its influence spreads.
Analysts at Net4People and GFW Report plan to share more findings as they go through the source code. For now, the leak offers an unusual look at how the system operates, and it will take time to understand the full weight of what has been exposed.
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I’m glad you bolded that sentence. It’s important to establish that China bad because they help other nations with technology.
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
Just curious if it’s working
gestures broadly to the genocide in Palestine That’s America, baby!
I’ll take 100 Tiananmen Square Massacres over a single Gazan extinction event. Even believing the West’s most-possibly biased propaganda surrounding the riots, it’s such a benign event in contrast to what the US is doing right now in front of your eyes to the point that I don’t give a fuck about your games.
I don’t care about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. It literally doesn’t matter to me whatsoever. You can say whatever you want about it. What’s next?
That’s whataboutism, the US being bad doesn’t make china good, and tiananmen square is not the only thing of the sort china has done.
Whataboutism is bringing up the TSM in the first place. But you already knew that.
Let’s continue: When was the last time China dropped a bomb? Like, a real, actual human-killing bomb?
I ask because the domestic police in a city in my US state bombed civilians in their apartment buildings a while back. And its been even longer than that since China bombed someone.
Now, let’s shift to the US military. When was the last time they bombed someone? Yesterday? Right as I type this?
China isn’t the US no matter how hard you want to drag them down with us, morally. It will not work.
When the US calls Chinese technology “censorship and surveillance” you know it’s some good shit they haven’t yet figured out how to conquer in the name of capitalism.
Here’s a fact: to exist on the world stage with the US, proactive measures must be enacted. To fight back against US digital hegemony is a far cry from censorship. It’s a responsible stance.
The fact that anyone could think the flavor of authoritarian justifies abuse. Rather than, you know,; admonishing both as they deserve. Never ceases to baffle.
There’s a cure for this confusion. Read Marxist theory.
The Chinese are not marxists. They are whores of wall street, rather pimps, pimping out their population to Wall Street to Garner Western technology and investment. While their workers toil 6 days a week 12 hours a day for substance wages and companies dump their toxins into the ground and Air.
Insane analysis from an insane liberal.
Says the defender of misery. You should be ashamed of yourself for what you defend.
I am so, so proud to criticize the US and its imperialism.
There’s no use in reading theory when you refuse to think critically about it. Plus no where in Marx’s theory does it call for or justify brutal dictatorial authoritarian regimes. The dictatorship of the proletariat was a philosophical and rhetorical construct… Not a litteral one. Which makes the tanky squealing of “read the theory” even more hillarious. You’re worse than the liberals you hate.
Marxism-Leninism is a literal cult, and “read more theory” is the chant they use to kill critical thought.
Those that doubt the Holy Theory are misguided counterrevolutionaries, and only the purest of yes-men that never question anything will join the glorious Vanguard Party™.
Reading a couple books won’t hurt you. You can read them and disagree, even. But the unwillingness to learn about a science that criticizes capitalism makes you much more of a cultist than any leftist.
There’s a reason you have to call it theory and why that theory gets bent like a pretzel whenever something runs counter to it. It must be correct because at its core it’s theology for the disillusioned. The material conditions weren’t right bro, trust me bro, just one more vanguard party bro, we’re gonna be stateless I promise, just need a little more critical support for these fascists bro…
Please, provide an argument instead of platitudes about “study more.” None of your posts contribute anything to the discussion besides “read Marx.” Some of us already have done that.
Ah, confused for a second time, I see.
I’m recommending reading leftist theory because it explains the things you’re confused about. I recommend actually reading something and forming a coherent thought before you worry about critical thinking.
“If you disagree with me it’s because you haven’t read the right things, if you were truly learned you would agree with me. Checkmate liberal”
You should be able to defend your ideas on their own merits, instead of deferring to existing works.
I called that poster confused because they literally said they were baffled.
Also, the idea that we shouldn’t “defer to existing works” in the world of science is the dumbest thing I have ever read on Lemmy. Congratulations.
Addition:
There is at least one more (officially known) country that is a decisive partner regarding surveillance: Israel.
Between Chinese Surveillance and Israeli Settler Colonialism
That’s such a tenuous connection. Why are you highlighting this? Those are off the shelf cameras, everyone uses them, because they are cheap. China isn’t unique in not sanctioning Israel. They absolutely should. But you may just as well focus on the use of Microsoft Windows or who their Ethernet cable supplier is.
That’s not simply about technology.
China’s Ties With Israel Are Hindering the Palestinian Struggle for Freedom
I don’t really think the evidence is strong enough to attribute any sort of anti-Palestinian policy. The video is short, only 13 seconds, with no audio and no context. It doesn’t depict a large mobilisation of support, only one person, though it does look like he had his flag confiscated by school-security. In the clip, another person also has their Chinese flag confiscated. It’s possible given the evidence that large flags were confiscated regardless of which flag it is. We can also see a smaller Palestine flag allowed by the school-security.
The twitter account you attributed only posts unsourced and impossibly to verify anti-China news, so it’s possible this video is widely taken out of context given who’s reporting it.
There is ample evidence for China linked to repression of Uyghurs aids Israeli surveillance in West Bank
You’ll find very good independent research reports.
You have nothing, goebbles. Never had anything. Only lies. 100% racism, 0% evidence.
Wow, yeah, the Israel connection sure does suck. China is bad because of how close they are to Israel. Of course.
Wait.
I know you are trying to be clever but you are just coming across as immature and stupid. This is a common ass saying so you have no excuse for forgetting it “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
An equivalence does not exist. The US supplied the money, munitions, and political cover for Israel to commit a genocide. Whatever half-baked bullshit connection you want to cook up between China and Israel has no business being compared to the US’s ongoing facilitation of genocide.
To invoke “two wrongs” here is downplaying US and Israeli genocide to own China. Disgusting behavior.
Criticizing you for being a immature little shit is in no way justifying anything. If you need to make up things and invent context to continue this consider not saying dumb shit in the first place and you won’t have to.
Is this English? It reads like gibberish.
You do realize that the original post is on lemmy.zip and not lemmygrad, right?
I have never posted to lemmygrad, but those dudes rule. This isn’t the L you think it is.
No, it really is. Tankies live in a fantasy land, thinking the wildfire is greener on the other side of the fence.
Something can be said about unregulated, late-stage capitalism and American imperialism. The former is a malignant cancer that consumes all in its wake and demands infinite growth for itself and the ones who direct it. The latter, in service of the former, is a threat to the rest of the developed and undeveloped world.
Those are entirely reasonable criticisms, calling an apple an apple. Unchecked capitalism empowering sociopathic, self-serving oligarchs will kill us all.
Genuinely thinking of China (or Russia) as anything other than a competitor to America is just trading one leather boot for a different flavor of leather boot. They are both capitalist states, and they are both acting in their own self-interests of cultural and economic dominance. The only effective difference is that one calls itself a republic while presenting the illusion of democracy, and the other calls itself communist while presenting the illusion of Marxism.
Education will set you free.
Lmao
This is like saying “it’s important to establish that ISIS is bad because they help people fix their cars by installing car bombs”
Car bombs are also “technology”
You really posted this and thought no one would see right through it?
That is hilariously reductive.
It’s meant to be, the same as it’s parent comment
Nice one mate
Maybe, one day, the technology helps us not having to read comments like yours, because the technology blocks them when there are protests in your country…