The Party in Cyberspace: China’s Digital Ecosystem

Jul 31, 2019

Graham Webster, a China digital economy fellow and coordinating editor of the DigiChina project, shares his expert insights on China's digital landscape. He discusses the complexities of China's AI policies and the nuances of its legal regulations, particularly regarding data privacy. The conversation sheds light on the real implications of the controversial social credit system and explores the escalating tensions between the U.S. and China amidst a technological cold war. Webster emphasizes the need for informed dialogue about global cybersecurity and surveillance.

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ADVICE

Reading Chinese Regulations

Read Chinese legal texts for original sources, but understand limitations.
Consider enforcement realities and informal practices for the full picture.

INSIGHT

Cross-Border Data Rules

New cross-border data rules aim to protect Chinese data from misuse.
These rules build upon existing data protection regulations and aren't solely about VPNs.

INSIGHT

VPN Concerns

VPN fears are overblown; the government has other ways to control them.
The focus is on data protection, similar to GDPR, not restricting VPN access specifically.

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This week, Jordan speaks with Graham Webster, a China digital economy fellow and coordinating editor of the DigiChina project at New America. He was previously a senior fellow and lecturer at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. The two talked about Graham’s work at DigiChina, artificial intelligence in China and its complex legal infrastructure, the facts (and fiction) behind China’s controversial social credit system, and the potential for a new cold war between the U.S. and China. What to listen for on this week’s ChinaEconTalk: 10:23: “If the Chinese government wants to step on Huawei or somebody to get access to data, they’re not going to need this particular provision of law to do it. I think it’s a similar case with VPNs and these cross-border data rules. The pretty clear intent behind these rules is to expand on an increasingly detailed regime for protecting Chinese peoples’ data from abuse by companies or cyber criminals or just breaches due to bad security practices. It could be read in a way that would make VPNs problematic, but there are already other sets of regulations that make VPNs kind of problematic under Chinese law… From my perspective, this would be a very strange way for the Chinese government to try to cut down on VPNs, when they could just go at it directly and say it’s a violation of the principle of cybersovereignty.” 32:59: “In the end, we’re having this global discussion and people around the world are realizing how unaccountable various institutions and businesses are when they use automation. And there’s both real things going on in China, especially in Xinjiang, and a bunch of maybe slightly exaggerated or imagined things going on that capture people's imaginations about what could go wrong… I really would like it for people to be better informed about the realities of, for example, social credit because — my [former] colleague Jeremy Daum likes to say sometimes: ‘There are plenty of actual Chinese government offenses against human rights and against the dignity and well-being of Chinese citizens; we don’t need to invent other ones. We should focus on what’s actually happening.’” Get bonus content on Patreon

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