Effective Intelligence Collection on Chinese Citizens - Tips

Image Credit goes to Photographer: Ina Jang for Bloomberg Businessweek

This post discusses OSINT, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Agencies collection operations in this sector, with a focus on identifying threat data originating from China, as well as the expertise required to identify information on Chinese individuals online for all Western investigators, journalists.

When we look into Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and specifically the process most intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies in the West are dealing with for threat identification originating from China. it's important to understand and learn about the depth of Chinese names, so that these Western agencies can work better and produce even more efficient intelligence. The truth is, names is difficult to work with, because of the depth and the wide range of possible variations it may have and how these influences a Western investigator's capabilities on the collection process, the time it takes, and the overall efficiency rate of such an investigation. In the screenshot below taken from our 'Advanced Chinese Open-Source Intelligence Investigator (OSINT) Course, we show you an example of the depth of conducting information gathering effectively on Chinese individuals.

First and most importantly, understanding the depth of Chinese name variations and the impact it has on online presence, collection efforts, pivoting from one account to another.

The illustration below portrays an example from advanced training in which we discuss how a single first name and surname can have many different variations, and how this wide range of variations can influence account identification on various social media platforms and SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence).

1.Screenshot showing high level consideration of target identification online using name variations

Chinese name variants are only one aspect of the game; we must also examine aliases, nicknames, and contributing variables of various linguistic communication modes, as well as grasp slang and, most crucially, context within all of this, in order to detect real threats or real threat data.

Once you understand the full depth of names, combining this knowledge with the skill of identifying area-specific resources e.g., people search engines, reverse search engines, understanding how to fully leverage Government portals for OSINT work, is a very powerful combination in the ever growing landscape of China's internet.

Below is an illustration of the 4 most critical skills a China-focused OSINT professional must have.

2.Screenshot showing the four critical skills we teach our students at COSINTI advanced course.

When it comes to OSINT, China is a very rich landscape full of information just ready to be explored. It's more important than ever to understand the techniques and methods used to successfully gather intelligence on people, but not limited to people only.

The COSINTI course covers more than just profiles of individuals; it also covers data on companies and threats, giving students a complete way to gather intelligence in the Chinese world.

The course focuses on being practical, real-life scenarios, providing you with actual skills you can apply right away to reach your intelligence-gathering goals within China.

---- What makes COSINTI course unique is that today it is the only Chinese OSINT course in the market that covers a wide range of topics, blends in unconventional information gathering methods inside China's ecosystem and gives you all the know how to search like the local while truly breaking all the barriers.  ---

To read more about our unique offering, go to, download the syllabus in PDF.

https://www.epcyber.com/COSINTI