EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Procurement records analysed in this report reveal a highly integrated surveillance ecosystem operating across the Tibet Autonomous Region and neighbouring Tibetan areas especially Kirti Monastery in Ngawa (Ch:Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. State-owned telecommunications providers, particularly China Mobile Communications Group Tibet Co., Ltd. (中国移动通信集团西藏有限公司) and China Telecom Tibet Branch (中国电信西藏分公司), play a central role in building and maintaining the communications infrastructure that supports CCTV networks, data transmission systems, and integrated monitoring platforms. This surveillance architecture combines conventional policing with advanced technologies, including extensive CCTV systems, AI-enabled command platforms, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) such as robotic dogs.
Procurement records further demonstrate that surveillance projects rely on close collaboration between Public Security Bureaus (PSBs), state-owned enterprises, and private engineering and technology firms responsible for the procurement, installation, and maintenance of surveillance infrastructure. Particularly noteworthy is the case of Kirti Monastery in Ngawa (Aba), one of the most heavily securitised monasteries in Tibetan regions. Following the 2008 Tibetan protests and the wave of self-immolations in 2011, Chinese authorities established permanent police posts, stationed hundreds of officials within the monastery, and installed extensive CCTV surveillance systems covering the monastery compound and surrounding areas. A surveillance tower dated 19 September 2024 is also documented and included in this paper. In this report procurement records published by the Aba County Public Security Bureau, which has jurisdiction over the area where Kirti Monastery is located, together with publicly available imagery, indicate sustained investment in surveillance infrastructure around this
Procurement records reveal a networked surveillance ecosystem across the Tibetan areas, linking security agencies, telecommunications companies and technology through CCTV, AI-enabled systems and centralized command platforms. Kirti Monastery exemplifies the sustained expansion of this infrastructure.
While China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) provides a legal framework for the protection of personal data, its broad national security exemptions afford authorities considerable discretion in conducting surveillance activities. An overview of China’s legal environment illustrates a contradiction between the state’s commitment to China’s Personal Information Protection Law and other legal clauses such as those invoking national security concerns. The procurement records examined in this report suggest that, in practice, security priorities continue to outweigh privacy protections in Tibetan areas. Many of these systems are integrated through China’s “one-screen governance” model, which consolidates CCTV feeds, public security databases, emergency response systems, and other government information into a unified command platform for real-time monitoring and decision-making. Collectively, these findings illustrate how surveillance in Tibet has become deeply institutionalised through a state-corporate network that integrates digital technologies, telecommunications infrastructure, and public security agencies as the data in this report show repeated contracts awarded by Public Security Bureaus and Political and Legal Affairs Commissions to state-owned telecommunications companies and engineering firms, while the growing deployment of AI-enabled and autonomous technologies reflects China’s continued expansion of technologically driven governance and security capabilities across the Tibetan Plateau.
