A decade later, he was part of the sprawling censorship machine that suffocates China's cyberspace, tasked with stopping the spread of anything the Communist Party does not want its people to know about.

"At first when I worked on this I didn't think much bigger because a job is a job," he said.

"But deep inside I knew it was not aligned with my ethical standards. And once you work in this field for too long [...] the conflicts become stronger and stronger."

Now living in the heart of Silicon Valley in California, the United States, Zeng is an affable 29-year-old who wears the weight of his past experience lightly.

Few people who have worked inside China's propaganda apparatus have told their stories. Even fewer are prepared to do so openly.

Profoundly shocking

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