evidence: Much of this is underreported in the media, for the simple reason that Tibet remains an information black hole. Even North Korea, the hermetically sealed nation, has allowed the Associated Press and the Agence France-Press to establish bureaus on the ground, but there is not a single foreign reporter in Tibet. Beijing uses big-data technology of surveillance and state-of-the-art infrastructure of repression –– including the "convenience police stations" and the "double-linked households system," innovated by Chen Quanguo during his tenure in Tibet –– to keep Tibetans, much like Uyghurs, in a general state of fear. But China’s ambition goes beyond mere physical control of its restless peripheries. Calling its ethnic unity education "an engineering project of the soul," Xi Jinping’s China aims for nothing less than to "transform ethnic cultures and identities" as a permanent solution to what it views as the two biggest challenges to its cultural unity and political stability: Tibet and Xinjiang.