The IJOP functions as a data fusion tool by tying an individual’s government-issued ID card to her physical attributes (such as facial features, blood type, and height), as well as tracking where individuals’ phones, ID cards, and vehicles go. The system flags mundane and otherwise legal behavior as warranting further surveillance, imprisonment, or even extralegal internment in Xinjiang’s vast network of concentration camps.

One key tool in this surveillance regime is the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), which monitors Xinjiang residents with unprecedented intrusiveness.