Michael Caster, Head of Global China Programme at ARTICLE 19, and I-Chen Liu, Asia Programme Officer, delve into China's powerful influence on global cybersecurity norms. They discuss the Digital Silk Road and its implications for Indo-Pacific countries adopting Chinese digital governance. Key topics include the rise of digital authoritarianism, risks associated with reliance on Chinese tech, and challenges to digital freedoms faced by nations like Taiwan. They also highlight the importance of grassroots activism and international collaboration to counteract these influences.
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insights INSIGHT
Digital Silk Road Overview
The Digital Silk Road is an umbrella under the Belt and Road Initiative for China's digital policies and infrastructure projects.
It started around 2014 and drives both tech development and governance norm promotion globally.
insights INSIGHT
China Shifts Internet Norms
China promotes digital governance norms that differ from the internet's originally decentralized, stateless model.
Recipient countries adopting China's cybersecurity norms shift global internet governance toward centralized state control.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Indonesia Adopts PRC Cyber Norms
Indonesia sought China's cybersecurity help after many cyber attacks and signed an MOU in 2017.
Huawei's involvement in Indonesia's 5G rollout influenced its cybersecurity standards toward Chinese norms.
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Michael Caster (Head of Global China Programme) and I-Chen Liu (Asia Programme Officer) are researchers from the international non-profit organization ARTICLE 19, whose report “Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics” (2025) outlines PRC’s influence over cybersecurity norms in 3 Indo-Pacific countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam; and with a Taiwan alternative.
The Digital Silk Road is an umbrella concept that includes policies, priorities, tools, technologies, and tactics of a digital nature under the larger Belt and Road Initiative. Launched in 2015, it’s how PRC promotes its cybersecurity and digital governance norms and technical standards across the world.
It does this through public and private partnerships with Chinese tech companies that provide capacity-building initiatives: 5G cyber security test labs in Malaysia, mobile payment in Thailand, data centers in Nepal, surveillance cameras in Phnom Penh and Kathmandu, submarine cables in Cambodia, and satellite systems for Thailand. While receiving such technology, recipient countries have also adopted PRC-style censorship and regulations into their legal framework. Examples include Vietnam’s 2018 cybersecurity law, which regulates aspects including content moderation and data localization.
The PRC is now pushing for multilateral cooperation through institutions like the UN, ASEAN, and other state-led forums. It has established additional bodies like the Global Security Initiative, Global Development Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative to further the standardization of PRC-style norms.
The researchers warn of the impact on democracy and freedom of speech this could have on the recipient country. “When China talks about multilateralism, they're doing it as a renouncing multi-stakeholderism approach; Denying civil society, the tech sector, academia, other independent actors. They're denying them a seat at the table”, says Caster.
The PRC-style of digital government becomes a toolkit for the authoritarian actor on how to use cybersecurity laws in the name of promoting safety or national security; but it’s actually introducing potentially humanitarian disaster laws that will impact the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy.
Notable is the upcoming United Nations Cybercrime Convention in Vietnam, dubbed The Hanoi Convention, which has been rescheduled from July to October, 2025.
The Cybersecurity with Chinese Characteristics report ends with Taiwan’s democratic model of defending cybersecurity, which ensures the participation of civil society, as an alternative model to curb digital authoritarianism.
This report follows “The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific” (2024) which includes case studies from Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand.
The Taiwan Take