WeChat (微信 / Weixin) is China’s all-in-one “super app.” A Frankenstein’s monster that combines most Western social media platforms into one, it’s the hub for all internet activity in one of the world’s most heavily regulated online ecosystems. Whether you’re messaging, making payments, posting photos, conducting business, or doing WeChat OSINT, you’ll be on the app - along with over 1.3 billion fellow Chinese netizens.
WeChat is essential to Chinese digital life; and that makes it an indispensable OSINT (open-source intelligence) resource. However, WeChat’s closed architecture (including real-name policies and strict data protection laws) make it hard work for even the most intrepid Chinese OSINT investigators.
Luckily, this guide is here to give you everything you need to know about OSINT on WeChat. From ethics to techniques to typical limitations, we’ll take you through the basics - plus pro tips that’ll take your investigation that extra step further. 我们走吧!
Why WeChat OSINT?
WeChat is like nothing in the Western world; it’s a self-contained ecosystem. That’s why most Western OSINT techniques - developed for open platforms like X or Facebook - won’t spark much behind the Great Firewall. Meanwhile, some Eastern analogues won’t match up either. Unlike Weibo or Douyin, WeChat mixes private chats with semi-public “Moments” and “Official Accounts”, which can (contradictorily) contain publicly viewable data.
This all adds up to the bottom line: WeChat is a complex mix of public and private that’s unlike anything else. That makes WeChat OSINT uniquely valuable, and uniquely specialised.
But what can you get from WeChat OSINT? Here’s what it’s so good for.
- Corporate due diligence: OSINT on WeChat can link private individuals to public companies, specifically official accounts. Like LinkedIn, you can find out if somebody’s a company employee, or what businesses they’re connected to.
- Network mapping: Moments can be shared between users, so you can easily connect accounts to each other. Similarly, users can be linked by which groups they share.
- Influence analysis: Tracking narratives is vital in a propaganda-packed environment like China. WeChat OSINT can track the narratives official accounts are pushing, and confirm their links to bad actors.
- Fraud or threat research: OSINT on WeChat can monitor groups, channels and accounts that present a threat. Crypto scammers and disinformation campaigns are particularly active on WeChat.
It all comes down to this: if you want to do OSINT in China, you need to do OSINT on WeChat. As China’s online discourse moves into semi-private ecosystems and off the wider web, it’s more important than ever to sharpen up your skills.
Want to know more about OSINT under Chinese censorship? Check out our guide to Playing with Fire: OSINT and China’s Great Firewall
Anatomy of a “Super-App”: Understanding WeChat’s Structure
To help you understand how OSINT on WeChat works, we need to understand the platform’s structure. Here’s the anatomy of China’s “super-app” - plus rough Western equivalents to make things even clearer.
“Facebook”: Personal Accounts
Like on conventional Western social media, each WeChat user has a personal account. It comes with a WeChat ID: a unique handle similar to a Twitter @, that’s searchable in-app and functions as a username.
Users can also customise their profile with a nickname, avatar, status message, and optional location. A personal account also gives you access to Moments (more on those later). While you can’t find all the details about somebody from their profile, it’s a good place to find clues.
“Instagram”: Moments
Moments (or 朋友圈, directly translated as ‘circle of friends’), are a more private feature. These posts include photos, short videos, and captions - as well as location tags and stamps that tell you the time or date of posting. Other users the poster has ‘friended’ can react to Moments and comment on them, too.
As the translation suggests, Moments are all about exposing relationships. WeChat OSINT investigators will find valuable leads that connect individuals to each other, and prove their affiliations. A warning: Moments can be strictly private, and only shared with contacts within the poster’s circle of friends. Don’t contact targets unless it’s absolutely necessary and safe to do so.
“Whatsapp”: Groups and Channels
Think of this as the messaging function. Like Western Whatsapp groups, WeChat group chats can grow huge; they can include up to 500 members at a time. Meanwhile, Channels (视频号 or ‘video channels’), are short-form public video feeds - sort of like a stream.
Some WeChat OSINT investigators will monitor open groups for narrative-mapping, to track how people talk about different topics. Similarly, you can monitor groups and channels for emerging scam trends, or to see how Chinese citizens discuss politically sensitive subjects. Joining a group can be invite-only, or as public as a QR code stuck up in the street.
“LinkedIn”: Official Accounts
Just like the Western internet, WeChat is plagued by brand accounts inserting themselves into public conversation. Official accounts (公众号 or ‘public accounts’) are verified and represent a brand, public personality, or even a government agency. They publish content - often mirrored on external websites - and are purely public. These are vital for WeChat OSINT; they post often and reveal businesses’ activity, run groups, have archived posts that provide a timeline of their activity, and can be linked to company registration information at China’s MIIT ICP database.
Like personal accounts, official accounts can be searched directly within WeChat, or via Sogou Weixin. Searching an Official Account name in Sogou often reveals its registration ID and location automatically too - perfect for cross-checking.
WeChat OSINT Workflow: Our Step-By-Step Strategy
Step 1: Define
WeChat is massive, so you need to narrow things down. The first step is to define the objective, scope, and target of your investigation. Answer these key questions:
- Who or what is my target? Is it an individual, a company, or a broader network?
- What do I know about them already? Gather together all the identifiers you’re working with; phone numbers, user names, email stems, and images.
- What do I want to find out? Decide what you’re aiming to prove, and what you need to uncover to prove it.
Collecting these anchors early on will keep your investigation on track.
Step 2: Discover
Once you’ve defined your WeChat OSINT investigation, you can move into the discovery phase. Start by running your identifier data through WeChat’s built-in search function; this will bring up any accounts, groups or content related to your target. Then, expand. Sogou Weixin, China’s primary public WeChat search engine, surfaces Official Accounts and articles that aren’t visible through the app alone.
Top tip: Running searches in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters will broaden your coverage.
Step 3: Collect
China’s government loves deleting posts. Part of the Great Firewall’s functioning involves mass deletions, for even the most seemingly spurious reasons. To combat this, document everything. Capture screenshots of profiles and posts, with clear timestamps. Archive Official Account content to preserve posts that may later be altered or removed.
But always be careful. China’s Personal Information Protection Law makes unauthorized data collection risky. Even non-Chinese researchers should avoid methods that access private user data or require false identities. So even if you can lawfully view a target’s Moments through legitimate mutual connections, proceed cautiously. Deceptive friending or covert access attempts may violate both Chinese and international privacy standards.
Step 4: Pivot
Once you have the dataset you need, the real WeChat OSINT work begins. First, start by running your data through other platforms: Weibo, Zhihu, QQ, and corporate databases like Qichacha or Tianyancha. Tools like OSINT Industries will help you here; they can search hundreds of platforms at once, and return a concise report that tells you all you need to know about your target’s online footprint. Plus, safety and compliance is all built in.
To learn more about other Chinese platforms, check out Advanced OSINT for China: SOCMINT on WeChat, Weibo, and More
Step 5: Verify
Given the high degree of moderation on Chinese platforms, it’s imperative that you always verify your findings. Cross-reference your archived posts across multiple sources. If you’re working with slang or coded language, consult native speakers to make sure your translations are accurate. The more you verify your findings, the more convincing they are - and the more successful your investigation.
Want to see the WeChat OSINT Workflow in action? Read our case study to see how pro investigator Julian uncovered the truth behind Chinese fentanyl.
‘Julian had proved the China-US fentanyl connection: a nexus of narcotics businesses, selling precursors. With OSINT Industries, drive and smart detective work, [he] could observe these CCP-linked narcotic rings in-action.’
Read more: Julian, An OSINT Investigator Exposing the Truth About Chinese Fentanyl
