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About the Event
In autocracies around the world, technological advances in areas such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence have ushered in an era of data-driven repression. Above all, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is testing the boundaries of tech-enhanced authoritarian rule, based on a pervasive net of censorship and surveillance.
This model is a global threat to democracy in the digital age—and the next generation of tech development could tighten its grip. A new report from the International Forum for Democratic Studies explores how the PRC’s development and export of four categories of frontier technologies–neuro- and immersive technologies, quantum technologies, advanced AI surveillance systems, and central bank digital currencies–could deepen the challenge to freedom from a new “data-centric authoritarianism.”
How do these frontier technologies work and how much progress has China made to date in developing them? In what ways will they impact basic civic freedoms? What can civil society and other democratic actors do to defend human rights and democratic norms in the face of this challenge?
Author Valentin Weber (German Council on Foreign Relations) and Miles Yu (Hudson Institute) took part in a discussion on this new report. Christopher Walker (National Endowment for Democracy) provided remarks and Beth Kerley (International Forum) moderated the discussion.
About the Speakers
Valentin Weber is a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). His research covers the geopolitics of cyberspace, as well as surveillance and emerging technologies. In 2019, he analyzed Chinese and Russian information controls as an Open Technology Fund Senior Fellow with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Weber has contributed to major news outlets including Die Zeit, Deutsche Welle, The Globe and Mail, South China Morning Post, and the Associated Press. He holds a PhD in cyber security from the University of Oxford.
Miles Yu is a senior fellow and director of the China Center at Hudson Institute and professor of East Asia and military and naval history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Dr. Yu specializes in Chinese military and strategic culture, US and Chinese military and diplomatic history, and US policy toward China. Previously, Dr. Yu served in the Trump administration as the China policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution as a member of the Military History/Contemporary Conflict Working Group. From 2011 to 2016, he wrote the weekly column “Inside China” for the Washington Times.
Christopher Walker is the vice president for studies and analysis at the National Endowment for Democracy. He oversees the multidimensional department that is responsible for NED’s analytical and thought leadership efforts, which pursues its goals through several interrelated initiatives: International Forum for Democratic Studies; the Journal of Democracy; the Reagan-Fascell fellowship program for international democracy activists; and the Center for International Media Assistance. Prior to joining the NED, Walker was vice president for strategy and analysis at Freedom House.
Beth Kerley, (moderator) is a senior program officer managing the International Forum for Democratic Studies’ emerging technologies portfolio, which covers the challenges and opportunities for democracy as technological advances supply new tools of politics and governance. She was previously associate editor of the Journal of Democracy and holds a PhD in History from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
