Digital Authoritarianism “Made in China”

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the use of digital technologies in the name of public health and safety and vividly illustrated how societies, even democratic ones, can tolerate the expansion of executive power and accept restrictions on liberties. In China, the pandemic justified the use of such technologies and policies to a further extent, but also served as a proof by the government, that its model of digital control succeeded in handling the coronavirus crisis. This paper reviews the Chinese model of digital authoritarianism and highlights its implications for democracy and civil liberties, since China is aiming to export its model around the globe. It manifests the rationale and techniques of this model, but also China’s position on internet governance and techno-nationalism. China is leading the way on AI and surveillance technology and is exporting its model abroad, via the Digital Silk Road, the technology component of the Belt and Road Initiative. The exportation of the digital authoritarianism model is targeting mainly states in East Asia, Africa and Latin America, but its implications are global, if digital surveillance and social credit systems become the new normal.