Executive summary and key findings 2

  Key findings 2

Recommendations 3

Introduction: Venezuela’s surveillance state and the Chinese Communist Party 4

  Venezuela’s political system 4

  The Venezuela–China relationship: authoritarian solidarity 5

Chapter 1: Chinese technology in Venezuela’s digital-surveillance infrastructure 6

  1.1 What Venezuela has built 6

  1.2 Three operationally important systems 8

  1.3 Capabilities and limitations 10

  1.4 How AI could augment existing systems 11

  1.5 Emerging risk 13

Chapter 2: China’s AI-enabled surveillance as an export product 14

  2.1 The Chinese Communist Party’s model of surveillance-based governance 14

  2.2 China’s AI-powered surveillance and control systems 14

  2.3 Case study: iFlytek 14

Chapter 3: Post-2023 AI signals and emerging risks 16

  3.1 The diplomatic track: from infrastructure to AI 16

  3.2 The national chamber: AI direction at scale 19

  3.3 The data stack 20

  3.4 Civil-rights risks: what the architecture enables 21

  3.5 AI-powered surveillance: a warning, not a forecast 21

Conclusion: political uncertainty and a narrow opportunity in Venezuela 22

Notes 23

Acronyms and abbreviations 28