MIDLAND, Texas (AP) — The Chinese government is using an increasingly powerful tool to control and monitor its own officials: Surveillance technology, much of it originating in the United States, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Among its targets is Li Chuanliang, a Chinese former vice mayor hunted by Beijing with the help of surveillance technology. Li’s communications were monitored, his assets seized and his movements followed in police databases. More than 40 friends and relatives — including his pregnant daughter — were identified and detained back in China.

Deep in the Texas countryside, Li has now found refuge with members of a Chinese church living in exile after fleeing from China like Li.

Here, the Chihuahuan Desert unfurls as a stark, flat expanse of sand, punctur

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