The trial of a Chinese citizen who fled to Kazakhstan has offered rare insight into China’s secretive internment system, with Beijing’s security campaign in the western region of Xinjiang increasingly putting neighbouring countries in central Asia on edge.
Lu Wei “accepted a large number of bribes” during his time as national propaganda chief, head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, deputy head of the official Xinhua news agency, and as a Beijing city official, according to state media.
It’s only been a year since TNW reported China’s announcement it was shifting its national strategy to claim the artificial intelligence crown. In that time China has advanced its agenda to a startling degree, at least according to the experts.
As their hand-built wooden dhow approaches the shore, Ibrahim Chamume and his fellow fishermen take in the sail and prepare to sell their catch to the small huddle of villagers waiting on the white sand. He has been making a living like this on the Indian Ocean since he was 14. His father was a fisherman, too.
John Garver is Emeritus Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. He writes on China’s foreign relations and Asian international affairs. His most recent book, China’s Quest: The History of the Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic (Oxford University Press, 2016), is a comprehensive survey history of People’s Republic of China foreign relations. His current research relates to China’s role in the recent Iran nuclear negotiations, Indian Ocean security issues, and Xi Jinping’s “New Silk Road” proposals. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Contemporary China, Asian Security, and Issues and Studies, is a long-time member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and an Associate of the China Research Center.
Christina Lin is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on China-Mediterranean/Middle East relations and ways for U.S.-China cooperation in a changing international order. Specific areas of interest include China’s Belt and Road Initiative, its rising role in the Middle East’s economic and security landscape, and the interplay between regional security architectures such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Organization for Security Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as an evolving paradigm of China-U.S./West relations in a multi-polar world.
Lin holds a Ph.D. in International Political Economy and Security Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is a former Transatlantic Academy Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Fellow at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of “The New Eurasian Embrace” in Toward Well-Oiled Relations? China’s Presence in the Middle East Following the Arab Spring (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and “The Dragon’s Rise in the Great Sea: China’s Interests in the Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean” in The Eastern Mediterranean in Transition: Multipolarity, Politics and Power (Routledge, 2015).
Jarrett Blanc is a Senior Fellow in the Geoeconomics and Strategy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was the State Department Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Implementation under President Obama, responsible for the full and effective implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program. Prior to this position, he was the Principal Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) and Acting SRAP. Among other responsibilities, he negotiated the first joint Sino-U.S. development projects anywhere in the world, focusing on diplomacy and public health in Afghanistan.
The unprecedented amounts of data Chinese tech giants like Baidu and Alibaba collect is helping accelerate China’s development of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, including facial recognition, automated retail operations, and its much-discussed social credit system. But it has also raised ethical concerns about data privacy, and about the state’s control over its citizens. Policymakers in Beijing are trying to balance these concerns with a desire to strengthen China’s position in both strategic fields. What is the future of AI and big data in China? Will China’s tech industry surpass Silicon Valley to become a global leader in either or both fields?
Jeff Cao is a Senior Fellow at Tencent Research Institute, where he researches AI governance and ethics, regulation of self-driving technologies, legal tech, digital intellectual property, and data protection. He has published dozens of articles on the Internet in newspapers and academic journals.
The giant antenna rises from the desert floor like an apparition, a gleaming metal tower jutting 16 stories above an endless wind-whipped stretch of Patagonia. The 450-ton device, with its hulking dish embracing the open skies, is the centerpiece of a $50 million satellite and space mission control station built by the Chinese military.
