China’s Digital Silk Road initiative is helping Southeast Asian countries modernize their digital landscape. But rights groups say Beijing is also exporting its authoritarian model of Internet governance through censorship, surveillance and control.
Chinese state media recently announced that Chinese electrical appliance maker Midea Group is jointly building its first overseas 5G plant in Thailand with Thai mobile operator AIS, Chinese telecom service provider China Unicom and technology giant Huawei.
In early May, Beijing reached an agreement with Cambodia to create a digital legal library for the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Cambodia’s Khmer Times said its goal is to “expand comprehensive cooperation based on strategic partnerships and build a community with a shared future.”
But rights groups say that along with technology investments spurred by Chinese state media, Beijing is also helping countries in the region establish what they call “digital authoritarian governance.”
Article 19, an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting freedom of expression around the world and named after Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said in an April report that the Digital Silk Road is not just about promoting Chinese technology. industrial development. The report, China: Rising Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific, says Beijing is also using its technology to change the region’s digital freedom and governance standards to increasingly align them with its own standards.
In response to the 19th allegation, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA in an emailed statement: “Regarding the Digital Silk Road, the Chinese government is willing to work with all parties to jointly advance the construction of the Digital Silk Road. Silk Road, and share the results of the development of the Digital Silk Road “Dividends of Digital Economic Development”. “China hopes to deepen cooperation on digital technology innovation, strengthen digital cultural exchanges and mutual understanding, work with all parties to establish digital governance rules, and help bring a community with a shared future in cyberspace to a new stage.”
Using case studies from Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal and Thailand, the Article 19 report finds that Beijing is spreading the Chinese model of digital governance, as well as Chinese technology and investments from companies such as Huawei, ZTE and Alibaba.
Michael Custer, manager of the Article 19 digital program in Asia, told VOA: “China has successfully delivered the necessary services, enabled digital development to achieve greater connectivity, and digital development capability has become synonymous with People’s Republic of China [PRC]-style digital governance.” ” , which is contrary to international principles of human rights and Internet freedom and instead promotes ideas of total state control through censorship and surveillance, as well as digital sovereignty that distances itself from universal norms.”
The group said the agreement with China in Thailand, home to the world’s largest overseas Chinese community, strengthens internet controls imposed after the country’s 2014 coup. The group noted that Bangkok has since been considering creating a Chinese-style Great Firewall, a censorship mechanism used by Beijing to control online content.
The report notes that Nepal has a security and intelligence-sharing agreement with China and is concerned that Chinese CCTV camera technology is being used to spy on Tibetans, the largest group outside India.
The organization said Malaysia’s approach to building information infrastructure is becoming increasingly similar to the Chinese model. The group cited a cybersecurity law Malaysia passed in April and the country’s collaboration with Chinese companies whose technology is being used to suppress ethnic minorities in China.
Most importantly, Article 19 calls for Chinese participation at “all levels” of Cambodia’s digital ecosystem. Huawei, which has been threatened with a ban by Western countries over cybersecurity issues, has a monopoly on cloud services in Cambodia.
Although Chinese companies say they will not hand over private data to Beijing, experts doubt they have any choice due to the national security law.
In 2021, Phnom Penh decreed the construction of a national internet gateway similar to the Great Firewall of China, restricting Cambodians’ access to Western media and social media sites.
“It is not a coincidence that we are seeing the normalization of the Chinese-style firewall in some countries where China’s influence is most pronounced or where its support for digital development is strongest, such as Cambodia,” Castel said.
The Cambodian government says the portal will strengthen national security and help combat tax fraud and cybercrime. But the Internet Society, a nonprofit Internet freedom group based in the United States and Switzerland, said it would allow governments to monitor individual Internet use and transactions, as well as track identity and location.
“The Chinese Communist Party and companies linked to the Chinese government are leading an international campaign to fragment the Internet,” Kian Västeinsson, senior fellow for technology and democracy at advocacy group Freedom House, told VOA. “When I talk about fragmentation of the Internet, I mean fragmentation of the Internet. means that these efforts are aimed at creating a domestic Internet, isolated from global Internet traffic.”
Vesteinsson noted that despite Chinese support and investment, Cambodia has yet to implement a government-controlled internet plan.
“Building Chinese-style digital authoritarianism into a country’s internet infrastructure is extremely difficult. It’s expensive. This requires technical capabilities. This requires government capacity, and all indications are that the Cambodian government is struggling in these areas.”
Westenson said that while civil society and foreign policy pressure play a role, business concerns are also relevant because requests to censor online speech or spy on users impose costs on the private sector.
“Governments trying to promote the development of e-commerce should remember that a legal environment free of these censorship and surveillance obligations will be more attractive to companies assessing whether to do business domestically,” he said.
Article 19′s Custer said countries concerned about the spread of China’s authoritarian Internet model should take more steps to support global connectivity and Internet development.
“This support should be based on human rights law and Internet freedom principles,” he said, “to prevent China from exploiting the need to exploit Internet growth by positioning its services—often an extension of its authoritarian model—as the most affordable option.”
China will hold its annual Internet conference in Beijing from July 9 to 11. China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that this year’s conference will focus on artificial intelligence, digital government, innovation in information technology applications, data security and international cooperation.
Post time: Oct-27-2024