You can find the full study by Valentin Weber that was published by National Endowment for Democracy here.
Executive Summary
We live in an age of increasing data-driven authoritarianism. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies that collect and analyze digital data are transforming how autocrats work to stifle dissent. Today, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) stands out for its quest to collect and leverage unprecedented types and volumes of data, from public and private sources and from within and beyond its borders, for social control.
This report reviews four key data-centric technologies whose development could fortify Beijing’s tech-enabled efforts to control its own people and export authoritarian governance models around the world:
- AI surveillance applications: China is leveraging increasingly powerful AI surveillance systems, including not only facial-recognition cameras but sophisticated “city brains” that combine data streams to track and monitor urban trends. These tools create a pervasive surveillance dragnet and may be used by state authorities to quell protests before they start.
- Neuro- and immersive technologies: The PRC has world-class capabilities in researching and developing neurotechnologies, such as brain-computer interfaces, and has been actively investing in immersive technologies like virtual reality. Together, these technologies push the frontiers of surveillance by enabling data holders to infer, and potentially influence, people’s mental states, impacting the rights to privacy and agency on which democratic citizenship depends. Chinese laws effectively ensure that data from such commercial technologies will be accessible to state authorities.
- Quantum technologies: China is a leader in quantum computing and quantum communications, putting it in a position to benefit down the line from advances that could render present-day encryption obsolete. These capabilities endanger independent journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition politicians, undermining the protections they enjoy in other societies.
- Digital currencies: The PRC has introduced its own digital currency (CBDC) run by its central bank, paving the way for frictionless state monitoring of users and control over purchases. The spread of China’s CBDC would also hamper the ability of democracies to implement sanctions against authoritarian regimes.
The rapid and complex technological transition we are witnessing empowers authoritarian regimes. Thus, it is especially critical for civil society and democratic governments to identify effective, forward-looking strategies for confronting the spread of data-centric authoritarianism and mitigating its adverse impacts on human rights and democracy. To this end, this report identifies seven critical steps:
- Track and counter the diffusion of the PRC’s data-centric authoritarianism;
- Develop a roadmap for governing highly personal types of data collected by neurotechnologies and immersive interfaces;
- Keep AI systems transparent and protect them from misuse;
- Foster and support the development of privacy-preserving emerging technologies;
- Slow Beijing’s progress toward encryption-cracking quantum computing and resist the temptation to implant backdoors in new quantum communication networks;
- Accelerate civil society’s transition to quantum-resistant cryptography, especially in settings that are vulnerable to authoritarian repression;
- Engage more actively in international standard-setting fora to counter the normalization of authoritarian digital approaches.
