Britain’s intelligence warns: China’s dominance of technology will pose a threat to the world

Jeremy Fleming, director general of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), will make the case that China’s leaders are seeking to use technologies such as digital currencies and the Beidou navigation satellite network to control their own people at home and expand their influence abroad, according to an outline of the speech forwarded to the media in advance by his office.

“It means they are looking for opportunities to control the Chinese rather than finding ways to support and unleash the potential of their own citizens. At the same time, they treat countries around the world as either potential adversaries or potential vassals, and threaten, bribe or coerce them, “the speech outline says.

China’s leaders fear their own people, freedom of expression, the entire open and democratic order and the rules-based international system, and “this fear combined with China’s power poses a great threat to us all,” Fleming will say in his remarks.

Fleming warned last year that the western world should ensure that China does not dominate important emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and genetics.

Last month, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google Inc., directs the Special Study Project on American Competitiveness (SCSP) with Yll Bajraktari, former chief of staff to the U.S. National Security Adviser and executive director of the National Security Council on Artificial Intelligence. A report released on Tuesday (Sept 13, 2022) said it is entirely conceivable that future systems will be designed, manufactured and located in China, where they will dominate the world market, extend China’s sphere of influence and overtake the United States militarily. In that case, countries, including some of America’s Allies, would rely on Chinese-made technology and could be pulled into Beijing’s political orbit, delaying international progress in areas such as climate change, human rights and the fight against corruption and ultimately eroding the rules-based international order led by the United States. When China’s demographic trends and economic development are unfavorable, the Chinese Communist Party may worry that the window of opportunity is closing and decide to use its technological superiority to take dangerous actions.

Schmidt and Bajlakhtari also wrote that while the U.S. government’s recent chip legislation is a good start, the U.S. still risks being outperformed by China in the tech race, with dire consequences.

The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a broad set of export controls, including one that bans the supply to China of certain semiconductor chips made with American tools anywhere in the world, in an effort to expand efforts to slow Beijing’s technological and military development.

But in a media briefing the day before, senior administration officials acknowledged that the United States had not received any assurances from Allies that such measures would be implemented. “If other countries don’t join us, the unilateral controls we have in place will lose their effectiveness over time,” the official said.

A day later, the United States and Britain announced they would begin a comprehensive dialogue on technology and data to “ensure that our shared democratic values are protected and promoted globally.”

Beijing insists Western accusations against it are groundless and politically damaging.