Names of nearly two million Chinese Communist Party members exposed in major leak

A major leak from a Communist Party of China membership registry revealed the names and personal information of 1.95 million CCP members, Sky News Australia reports.

The leak includes the names, phone numbers, addresses, home towns, birthdays, and party numbers of CCP officials, among other personal information.

The party members listed in the document do not just live in China, but it also reveals the names of CCP operatives living abroad as well. It also reveals 79,000 Communist Party branches, many of which are implanted in western companies.

While there is no evidence as of yet that these party members have engaged in espionage against western companies, it reveals an embarrassing inability on the part of such companies to protect themselves from potential espionage.

Companies employing CCP members listed on the leaked document include Airbus, Boeing, HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, and Standard Chartered, potentially giving the CCP access to important secrets regarding aeronautic technology and banking, among other sensitive information.

Academics living in the UK is also on the list, employed in sensitive areas of research such as aerospace engineering. Pfizer and AstraZeneca, two medical firms which have been instrumental in developing the vaccine to COVID-19, collectively employ at least 123 CCP members.

Diplomatic initiatives aren't safe from CCP infiltration either, with several British consulates around the world employing members of the CCP.

The data was originally leaked in 2016 by a Chinese whistleblower and has been used for counterintelligence purposes. In September of 2020, the document was then given to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international alliance of legislators seeking to confront China on the world stage.

The documents were then passed on to four major news media organizations, including Sky News, which has been analyzing the data for months.