In a keynote speech, British intelligence chief Sir Jeremy Fleming warned of China’s increasing influence in the world. Beijing leaders are increasingly using tech dominance for political ends, said Fleming, director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)on Tuesday evening in the UK think tank Rusi. “Beijing is using all its leverage to challenge the post-war international consensus on business and technology. And it wants to rewrite the rules of international security…in a way we’ve never seen.”
The Chinese leadership is “deliberately and patiently working” on the “strategic advantage” it is gaining by shaping the world’s “technological ecosystem”. It’s not about competition, but about control – “their markets, their spheres of influence and their own citizens”. While the Communist Party has been building their country’s economic strength, it has simultaneously introduced draconian security laws and a culture of surveillance.
Technology is becoming the battlefield in the struggle for control, influence and values, says Jeremy Fleming, head of the British secret service with the conspicuously meaningless name “Government Communications Headquarters” (GCHQ).
(Photo: Frank Augstein/AP)
To expand its influence, China uses digital currencies, satellite systems and various technological products, among others. Exports spread them all over the world. All of this changes the definition of national security. Technology becomes the “battlefield” in the struggle for control, influence and values. The intelligence chief warned states not to enter into precarious deals with China that would involve adopting seemingly cheap and advantageous technology.
The warnings hit Germany particularly because of close economic ties
The “hidden costs” of such solutions would come to light in the long term: China could use its technical monopoly in future crises to demand allegiance at international level. The West must therefore make greater efforts to provide its own practicable and affordable offers.
Fleming’s speech reflects a common belief in intelligence circles: that the West – despite the current conflict with Russia – should focus on the People’s Republic as a challenger and disruptor of the international order. This is reflected, among other things, in the fact that NATO now also sees China as a potential security threat.
Germany is particularly affected by such warnings because it has close economic ties with China. The resulting dependency is increasingly being criticized in view of the world situation. At the beginning of November, Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be the first Western head of government to travel to Beijing after three years of Chinese isolation due to the corona pandemic.
It is an important task for the secret service to recognize “key moments in history”, said Fleming: “Right now it feels like one of those moments.” China’s success is not assured. Western democracies have great advantages on their side: the rule of law, strong institutions, the will to cooperate. But they must also “act” now: by strengthening their own technological development and at the same time making it clear to China that its role as a disruptive factor will come at a price.
This is not the first time Sir Jeremy has warned about China. Last year he described the country’s growing technological dominance as a “direct attack on Britain’s national security”. The West is facing a “moment of reckoning” and must accept that it will “no longer shape the key technologies of tomorrow”. In the area of critical infrastructure in particular, the western states may have fallen behind and could not be caught. The German Society for Foreign Policy described last year Areas where Europe is lagging behind the US and especially China: 5G/cellular technology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cloud computing and quantum computing.