China Dictatorship (中国独裁统治)

After authenticating the material, with the help of data security analysts Internet 2.0, IPAC passed the database to four media organisations around the world, including The Mail on Sunday.

Security sources believe the initial data leak came from a dissident who targeted an outwardly unremarkable office block in Shanghai which housed the records.

Despite the near certainty of being executed for treason if caught, he or she probably accessed it via a server before downloading it on to a laptop and releasing it on Telegram where it was found by IPAC.

The database was originally leaked on Telegram, the encrypted instant messaging app, and passed in September by a Chinese dissident to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which comprises more than 150 legislators around the world who are concerned by the influence and activities of the Chinese government.

Ms Markson [a journalist from The Daily Telegraph] said the data was extracted from a Shanghai server by Chinese dissidents, whistleblowers, in April 2016, who have been using it for counter-intelligence purposes.

On the same day, the news that the personal information of 1.95 million party members in Shanghai had been leaked was suddenly widely discussed in major overseas forums. Many comments pointed out that the relevant list appeared to be authentic.

Epoch Times reporters downloaded two Excel files containing information about CCP members of Shanghai governments, institutions, and enterprises according to the relevant links.

This list appeared on the Internet as early as a month ago. On July 21, a person named "Chief Referee" (总裁判) broke the news on Overseas Chinese Network (海外中文网爆料) that "the register of all party members in Shanghai was leaked."