Epoch Times exclusive: leaked 'political-related identity-tracing personnel database' allegedly from CCP political-legal system lists 10,000+ people for transnational repression
The Epoch Times published an exclusive on October 21, 2026, disclosing a database it calls the 'political-related identity-tracing personnel database,' allegedly originating from the CCP's political-legal system: 24,170 entries covering, after de-duplication, more than 10,000 people, targeting accounts the Party watches on overseas social platforms and Chinese-language outlets. The report says 93% of entries carry mainland-China location tags, and nearly half of the roughly 10,500 people with domestic addresses — 4,783 — have been pinned to addresses agents can visit. The target list is strikingly broad: alongside dissident leaders, it includes Falun Gong practitioners, Shen Yun members, independent journalists, and even pro-communist left-wing students and labor activists. [1]
Why it matters
This disclosure is worth recording for three reasons. First, it is the first time transnational repression's 'overseas account + domestic identity-tracing' loop has appeared in database form: what people say in overseas virtual spaces gets mapped to real names, ID numbers, addresses, work units and even family members — the first 'database-shaped' evidence for the transnational-repression beat this site has been tracking. Second, the breadth of the target list is itself news: even left-wing students and labor activists are included, suggesting the 'political-related identity-tracing' standard is not ideological alignment but 'whether the Party sees you as a threat' — consistent with the commentator's judgment quoted in the piece, and echoing the varied repression cases this site has documented. Third, the timing: the report ties in the FBI's October 4 arrest of Wanying Zhang (recorded by this site on October 6), the US move to strip Li Ping of citizenship, Canada's Bill C-219 passing third reading on October 8, and the US Senate's Stop Transnational Repression Act — if authentic, this database would become decision-making material for Western legislation and enforcement. A conservative note: the database's authenticity is unverified, and The Epoch Times itself states it 'cannot independently verify the database's overall accuracy'; claims that it comes from the political-legal system and that 'political-related identity-tracing' is that system's public terminology are The Epoch Times' own assertions, which this site cannot independently confirm. Sheng Xue's account of her experiences is her own testimony, with partial corroboration from PEN America, but the causal chain between the database and those experiences has not been established. Hence 'under ongoing verification'. [1]
Full report
According to The Epoch Times, the 'political-related identity-tracing personnel database' comes from the CCP's political-legal system. 'Political-related' and 'identity-tracing' (落查) are said to be terms the system uses publicly: once someone is labeled as 'interfering in politics,' their precise identity and location are traced, and the step after tracing is 'disposal' by specific political-legal organs. The database holds 24,170 entries, covering more than 10,000 individuals after de-duplication of repeated names. [1]
The report says the database targets overseas platforms — mainstream social media such as X and Facebook, or large Chinese-language outlets like The Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty Television and Wenxuecity — and the accounts the Party watches there. But the Party's interest goes beyond virtual IDs to real-world personal data: ID numbers, addresses, work units, even family members. About 22,500 entries (93%) carry explicit mainland-China location tags; of the roughly 10,500 people with domestic addresses, nearly half — 4,783 — have been pinned to addresses agents can visit. The report notes that a mainland address tag does not mean the target is currently in China; it may be a pre-emigration or family address. [1]
Who is on the blacklist? Besides dissident leaders Wei Jingsheng, Chen Guangcheng and Sheng Xue, the list reportedly includes Falun Gong practitioners, personnel of The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television, members of Shen Yun Performing Arts — devoted to reviving traditional culture — and even pro-communist left-wing students and labor-movement activists. The report comments that the list's complexity exposes a simple fact: whether or not one opposes the Party, whatever one's ideology, anyone the Party deems a 'threat' can end up a 'state enemy.' [1]
Canada-based writer and dissident Sheng Xue told The Epoch Times she appears in the database three times, under 'Sichuan,' 'Gansu' and 'Canada' tags. Her account of what followed includes: being denied entry or deported in 1996 and 2008; decades of online violence, fabricated pornographic images and false accusations; since April 2025, someone impersonating her name and email to send threatening letters to a Vancouver Shen Yun theater and bomb threats to Taiwan's presidential office, airports, police stations and Taipei 101; and from 2013 to 2017, her husband, sister, uncle and brother being pulled into a dedicated harassment group chat that posted thousands of words of attacks daily and could not be exited, for years. On third-party corroboration: the writers' organization PEN America lists her as an ongoing harassment case, documenting identity theft in 2019 and continuing death threats and deepfake nude photos. [1]
The report places the database in the context of the West's pushback against transnational repression: the G7 joint statement on combating transnational repression on June 17, 2025; Canada's House of Commons unanimously passing Bill C-219's third reading on October 8, 2026, which would for the first time legally define 'transnational repression'; US Attorney General Todd Blanche calling the fight against CCP transnational repression a 'major priority' in early October 2026; and the US Senate's Stop Transnational Repression Act, introduced in mid-July 2026, which would create a standalone criminal offense. The report also ties in the FBI's October 4 arrest of Wanying Zhang at Los Angeles airport (recorded by this site on October 6: charged as an unregistered CCP agent surveilling the son of Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te) and the US move to strip citizenship from Li Ping, accused of collecting Falun Gong intelligence for Beijing. [1]
Verification note: this record documents The Epoch Times' October 21 exclusive. The database's authenticity is unverified — The Epoch Times itself states it 'cannot independently verify the database's overall accuracy,' saying only that reporters spot-checked some public figures' information as broadly consistent with reality; claims that it comes from the political-legal system and that the terminology is that system's public usage are The Epoch Times' own assertions, which this site cannot independently confirm. Sheng Xue's account is her own testimony, with partial PEN America corroboration, but the causal chain to the database has not been established. The Wanying Zhang case tied in by the article was recorded by this site on October 6 (graded 'under ongoing verification'; post-indictment arraignment set for October 23). This record is therefore graded 'under ongoing verification' and will follow any independent third-party validation of the database's authenticity. [1]
Links above point to the original publishers of the cited reports or assessments. Their conclusions are attributed in the text and do not imply that this site has independently verified every factual claim.