Abstract
Over the last two decades, the emerging Chinese Party-state has used commercial ties with North American and European providers of surveillance technologies to grow national prowess of public security, fostering a transnational state-corporate symbiosis. The exports of surveillance technologies from the Global North to China started in the late 1970s, and now Chinese technology companies are competing with and replacing those suppliers in the globalized neoliberal market. This research explores the two-way dynamic of China’s state and private surveillance capacity underscored by international companies’ profit-seeking behaviors and domestic technological and economic growth. Four case studies of companies from Canada, China, and the US are used to highlight the changing dynamics in the global circulation of surveillance technologies. Particular attention is paid to the cyclical nature of such technologies through which unresolved issues of global governance continue to emerge and, accordingly, support the growth of technology-powered authoritarianism worldwide.
Highlights
One thing tech companies cannot do, in my opinion, is involve themselves in politics of a country
This paper presents empirical findings from four companies in Canada, China, and the US to demonstrate how surveillance technology sales to police and public security agencies have been bolstered by the global regulatory trade environment and globalized markets since the dawn of telecommunications and computer technologies in the 1970s
If the companies could align their developmental goals to the Chinese national strategic priorities, they were supported by the government, signaling the state-corporate symbiosis
Summary
One thing tech companies cannot do, in my opinion, is involve themselves in politics of a country. The paper outlines the theoretical foundations of the state-corporate symbiosis within transnational security markets and highlights their use in state securitization and the social justice harms those connections may create. It positions China’s growth within the surveillance technology market, describes the study’s methodology, and presents the analytical results. The discussion shows that surveillance technologies are not politically neutral but rather part of “high policing” strategies of surveillance bolstered by global trade and national alliances This is shown in the context of growing Chinese technological prowess and influencing global relations
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