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Browse resources on authoritarian sharp power and its effects on the integrity of institutions and globalized spaces.
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Publication Date: September 28, 2023
How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
The PRC has sought to shape the global information landscape in its favor through information manipulation, intimidation, co-opting journalists and enabling digital authoritarianism with cutting-edge technology.
Publication Date: March 23, 2023
China, Russia Target Audiences Online With Deep Fakes, Replica Front Pages
Authoritarian Country: China, Russia
Affected Region: Global
Author: Liam Scott
Concern has grown over Russia and China’s use of AI to impersonate trusted international media outlets and personalities in bids to manipulate information around the globe. Researchers anticipate the volume and quality of deep fakes to intensify, contributing to a further erosion of trust in media.
Publication Date: March 1, 2024
Biden Orders US Investigation of National Security Risks Posed by Chinese-Made ‘Smart Cars’
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: North America, United States
Author: Matthew Daly
The Biden administration has ordered an investigation into Chinese-made smart vehicles that pose national security risks including data collection, remote controlling and espionage. US officials are concerned that Chinese companies are finding ways to evade tariffs and pre-existing restrictions placed on Chinese cars.
Source: Balkan Insight
Publication Date: June 22, 2023
Social Controls: China- Style Surveillance is Coming to Serbia
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Europe, Serbia
Author: Maja Bjelos
Serbian government and state-owned enterprises have increasingly adopted Chinese surveillance technologies capable of penetrating users’ devices and acquiring large amounts of data. Chinese technological influence in Serbia has risked individual privacy and freedoms.
Publication Date: June 21, 2023
U.S. Tracked Huawei, ZTE Workers at Suspected Chinese Spy Sites
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: North America, United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba
Author: Kate O’Keefe
Employees of Chinese phone companies Huawei and ZTE were tied to suspected spy operations in Cuba. The companies’ specialization in technology like servers and network equipment could help obtain and transmit information to Chinese intelligence.
Source: BBC
Publication Date: July 31, 2023
China Using Families As ‘Hostages’ To Quash Uyghur Dissent Abroad
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Europe, Global
Author: Sam Judah
China has facilitated phone and video calls between diaspora Uyghurs and family members in the home country, in exchange for compliance overseas. Family separation has been the Chinese Communist Party’s favored tactic for exercising transnational repression over Uyghurs living outside China.
Source: Time Magazine
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
China’s Online Influence Campaign in Latin America
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Costa Rica, Paraguay
Author: Vera Bergengruen
Spanish-language social media accounts tied to the state-owned China News Service indicated a growing Beijing-backed influence operation in Latin America. These accounts have sought to circumvent Twitter’s state-media labeling policy to spread pro-China content to Latin American audiences.
Publication Date: January 1, 2024
Gulf States and Sharp Power: Allies to Adversaries
Authoritarian Country: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Affected Region: North America, United States, Europe, Global
Author: Christopher Davidson
The Gulf states have increasingly elicited “sharp power” activities against the West. This intensifying behavior is driven by a set of domestic and geopolitical factors including democratic backsliding and diminishing Western involvement in the region.
Publication Date: February 27, 2024
Africa Needs China for Its Digital Development – but At What Price?
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Stephanie Arnold
In their path towards digital development, African states have turned to Chinese tech firms for cheaper alternatives to western suppliers. The emerging dependence structure raises concerns for entrapment in the Chinese digital ecosystem and technology-enabled authoritarianism.
Publication Date: February 20, 2024
Saudi Fund-Backed Firm Partners with Chinese Surveillance Maker
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Middle East and North Africa, Saudi Arabia
Author: Alexander Cornwell, Pesha Magid
A subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund announced a $200 million partnership with a Chinese surveillance tech company, Dahua Technology, to manufacture surveillance hardware. Dahua technology has been sanctioned by the United States and linked to persecution of China’s Uyghur minority.
Publication Date: February 14, 2024
Serbia, UAE, Sign MoU Closening Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence
Authoritarian Country: United Arab Emirates
Affected Region: Europe, Serbia
Author: Katarina Baletic
Serbia signed an agreement allowing Serbian scientists to use the UAE’s AI language model, which collects vast amounts of data. The company behind the tool collaborates with UAE security services and a Chinese company which has been placed on a US trade blacklist in the past.
Publication Date: December 7, 2023
The AI Assault on Women: What Iran’s Tech Enabled Morality Laws Indicate for Women’s Rights Movements
Authoritarian Country: Iran
Affected Region: Middle East and North Africa, Global
Author: Rachel George
Iran is deploying AI tools such as facial recognition and location tracking to surveil women and enforce morality laws regarding female dress codes. This raises serious implications for the Middle East as a whole, a region entrenched with laws that facilitate gendered repression.
Source: New York Times
Publication Date: November 26, 2023
Can Taiwan Continue to Fight Off Chinese Disinformation?
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Asia-Pacific, Taiwan
Author: Tiffany Hsu, Amy Chang Chien, Steven Lee Myers
China has increased efforts to spread disinformation in Taiwan ahead of the democracy’s January 2024 elections. Taiwan’s experience as a top target for foreign influence campaigns has prepared civil society, government actors, and the public to counter China’s increasingly advanced campaigns.
Publication Date: November 14, 2023
High-Tech Chinese ‘Border Scanners’ Raise Transparency, Privacy Questions In Serbia
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Europe, Serbia
Author: Sonja Gocanin
China has donated border surveillance technology to Serbia under the stated goal of combatting smuggling and human trafficking across the Serbia-Bulgaria border. The donated technology, manufactured by CCP-backed Nuctech, may provide Beijing access to the personal data of EU citizens.
Source: Coda Story
Publication Date: October 26, 2023
Inside the Brain of a Kazakh Smart City
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Eurasia, Kazakhstan
Author: Bradley Jardine
A small village in Kazakhstan has deployed Chinese surveillance technology ahead of government plans to create smart cities nationwide. Analysts have raised concerns over China’s access to the private data of Kazakh citizens and collaboration with China to target protesters and minority groups.