Beijing’s digital net of suppression goes global
China exports its ‘Great Firewall’ of control and censorship with Pakistan the next target
Control, coercion, and censorship run rife in China. They are crucial levers of power for the unelected and unelectable Communist Party, and critical to President Xi Jinping’s rule as the “Chairman of Everything.”
At the heart of this information war is the Great Firewall that stifles free speech and sifts out “universal values.” Propaganda and patriotism permeate every aspect of life for the 1.4 billion population, spun in a web of online lies.
The blueprint for suppression has become so successful that Xi’s regime is now exporting it across the world. Pakistan appears to be the latest nation to “reluctantly” embrace and “replicate” a version of this digital wasteland.
“China is building an internet censorship system in Pakistan along the lines of its own,” Intelligence Online reported this week in a newsletter.
“Beijing, which has forced Islamabad’s hand on the matter and has enlisted the support of Chinese companies operating in the country, is intent on protecting its economic interests,” the Paris-based publisher pointed out.
China’s digital censorship will have profound implications across the globe.
Another brick in the wall:
- Pakistan is a strategic lynchpin in Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative. An estimated US$62 billion has been spent on the “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
- Major projects involved highways, rail and pipeline infrastructure “connecting China with the Chinese-invested Pakistani port of Gwadar” on the shores of the Arabian Sea.
Delve deeper: The next stage came with the rollout of the Digital Silk Road, which funds internet infrastructure and development. What followed next appears to be plans to mimic China’s “Digital Firewall” to control criticism of the partnership.
Between the lines: Concerns have surfaced over moves to build a Chinese naval base at Gwadar, across one of the most vital waterways in the world. Controlling the narrative will be crucial for Beijing.
Big picture: In 2020, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations warned that China was expanding its “deeply troubling governance model” online. The white paper referred to it as “digital authoritarianism.”
Why it matters: The situation has deteriorated since then amid the artificial intelligence boom. Linked with AI, China’s digital censorship will have profound implications for freedom of expression across the globe.
Bottom line: “China’s intention [is] clear – to promote and export a governance framework that favors authoritarian regimes,” Charles Mok at Stanford University wrote in a commentary for Tech Policy Press last month.
China Factor comment: The digital warning signs are flashing across the world.