China’s government has been using artificial intelligence to aid in an intimidation campaign to harass dissidents speaking out against the Communist regime.
CNN reported that a Chinese law enforcement official accidentally exposed the campaign, documenting a secret effort to suppress Chinese people who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while using OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. He allegedly revealed a network of hundreds of operatives and thousands of fake online accounts the CCP used to threaten critics of the CCP across multiple nations.
CNN’s report notes that the official used ChatGPT as a personal logbook, recording details about how CCP operatives impersonated U.S. immigration officials to contact dissidents in the United States and trick them into believing that their public comments against the Chinese government violated U.S. law.
A sprawling Chinese influence operation – accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT – focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.…
— CNN International (@cnni) February 25, 2026
The same network also tried using forged documents from a U.S. county court to force a social media platform to remove a dissident’s account. The user even went so far as to concoct a plan to generate a fake obituary and images of a gravestone to falsely claim a Chinese dissident had passed away.
The chatbot refused to comply with some of the user’s requests. But he was still able to use it to lay out a dissident suppression playbook that OpenAI was able to match to real-world online activity.
A Chinese official’s use of ChatGPT accidentally revealed a global intimidation operation
— Spotlight on China (@spotlightoncn) February 26, 2026
A massive Chinese influence operation aimed at intimidating dissidents abroad was inadvertently exposed when a Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT to document their activities,… pic.twitter.com/CQcrHR8h2n
This is part of a broader pattern of Beijing using AI and other digital tools to monitor speech, eliminate dissent, and manipulate public opinion online. China’s government runs the world’s most extensive online censorship and surveillance machine. It has rolled out a centralized “internet ID” linking every user’s identity to their online activity. This makes anonymity almost impossible and allows the regime to delete posts and accounts in real time.
Chinese police employ hacking tools and social media surveillance to unmask users on foreign platforms like X and Facebook. Then they swarm these spaces with pro-CCP content and intimidation campaigns to prevent people from criticizing the regime, according to The Associated Press. These systems are not only aimed at removing critical posts, but also to foster a sense of being watched and encourage dissidents to self-censor.