PC Magazine - USA (2020-01)

(Antfer) #1

Many countries in Africa, the Middle East, South-East
Asia, and South America use Chinese tech only.
Meanwhile, Canada and New Zealand are the only
countries that rely solely on American technology.


One reason for China’s apparent dominance in the
surveillance sphere is that the country is uniquely set up
to control the world’s semiconductor manufacturing for
DUWL¿FLDOLQWHOOLJHQFH7KLVLVDOVRWKHUHVXOWRIWKH%HOW
and Road Initiative launched in 2013 to strengthen
infrastructure, trade, and investments with the rest of
the world.


7KHSUREOHPZLWKDOOWKLV²DVLGHIURPWKHLPSOLFDWLRQV
IRU$PHULFD¶VFXUUHQWWUDGHZDUZLWK&KLQD²LVWKH
concern that China’s tech companies are not
independent enough from the Chinese government to
be trusted. Many fear that these companies could be
providing their government with backdoor access to the
products they export and the infrastructure they install.


As a result, the United States has already blacklisted
PDQ\&KLQHVHWHFK¿UPVRYHUDOOHJHGVXUYHLOODQFH
abuses. And the race to 5G has resulted in the ban of
Huawei from American markets.


%XWPDQ\RIWKHVHFRPSDQLHVDUHDOUHDG\¿UPO\
embedded in the AI surveillance game; Huawei supplies
tech to 50 countries. By comparison, American
companies IBM, Palantir, and Cisco supply surveillance
tech to only 26 countries between the three of them.


When you stop to consider that AI surveillance
technology in China has advanced to the point that
authorities can now identify you by the way you walk, it
makes sense that some are questioning whether the
wrong people will have access to this data.


The concern is
that China’s
tech companies
are not
independent
enough from the
Chinese
government to
be trusted.

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION (^) I SUBSCRIBE (^) I JANUARY 2020

Free download pdf