Data leak shows members of China's Communist Party working in global firms

They have also 'infiltrated' consulates of US, Australia and UK, says a report

Amid simmering tensions between Australia and China, the media here on Monday reported a major data leak containing official records like party position, birthdate, national ID number and ethnicity of nearly two million alleged members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) living and working across the world. The data leak obtained by The Australian newspaper has revealed how the alleged CPC members are employed with some of the world’s biggest corporations in the areas of defence, banks and pharmaceutical giants manufacturing coronavirus vaccines.
 

Among the companies identified as having alleged CPC members as their employees are Boeing and Volkswagen, pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and financial institutions including ANZ and HSBC, according to the report. The leak exposed details of 1.95 million CPC members after being extracted from a Shanghai server by whistleblowers.
 

An investigation by The Australian has found that at least 10 consulates in the eastern Chinese metropolis Shanghai have CPC members employed as senior political and government affairs specialists, clerks, economic advisers and executive assistants. It has further revealed 79,000 branches, many of them inside companies, universities and even government agencies.
 

The leak has alleged the ruling CPC has infiltrated the Australian, British and US consulates in Shanghai, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade using a Chinese government agency, the Shanghai Foreign Agency Service Department, to hire local staff.