Publication

This publication contends that the Chinese party-state engages in data collection on a massive scale as a means of generating information to enhance state security, as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) political security – and that this tech-enhanced authoritarianism is expanding globally. The text’s author explains this phenomenon through an analysis of the global operations of the Chinese company Global Tone Communications Technology Co. Ltd (GTCOM), which is a subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise (SOE) and is supervised directly by China’s Central Propaganda Department. She argues that Western governments should respond by strengthening data privacy laws and foreign influence transparency schemes, as well as investing in data literacy and data transparency programs.