Thread by @DaniellesCave

New HUGE @ASPI_ICPC project just launched online: Mapping China's #Tech Giants. It represents 5mths work from 6+ of our analysts (& is why I've been more terrible than usual on email of late..).

Check out our new website chinatechmap.aspi.org.au

.@ASPI_ICPC put this site + public database together to help fill a research gap. In 2018 we had non-stop Qs from international media & stakeholders we couldn't answer: "What is Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, CETC etc doing in X country?" They were always very difficult Qs to answer

There's a lack of public quantitative & qualitative data & to get underneath many of the major activities of some of these companies you need Mandarin, an understanding of Chinese state financing structure really helps & you need @internetarchive! chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/about-this-p…

So, we started with a database of 12 key telecommunications, Internet & biotech companies & have turned that database into a public interactive map. Currently, there's 17,000+ data points, geo-locating 1700+ points of overseas presence on the map chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/map/

We are not mapping out products & services here (i.e. a company using equipment from one of these 12 companies). We are looking at major, often strategic, points of overseas presence: 5G initiatives, smart cities, university & research partnerships, undersea cables, MoUs etc

And while the database is huge, we know it's not exhaustive so we have built in a crowd-sourcing feature on the website so that anyone can submit data they think should be included chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/contact-us/

MAP: On the map every you'll see a rainbow of excessively coloured icons - you can click on these to pull up 'pop up boxes' which display more data & info (including with cables, although clicking them is a bit trickier - you have to zoom in to pull up their pop up boxes)

MAP: The triangle yellow icons represent where we dug in to provide extra analysis. There's a story there. Some have not been told yet, or not widely. Others have been told & we've hyperlinked to the great work of other researchers + to reporting from journalists & NGOs

COMPANY: Map aside, there's company analysis: size, ownership, 🌎 business areas & exactly how they engage with the CCP - this is compulsory. Note: Internet + tech companies have been reported to have the highest proportion of internal CCP party committees in 🇨🇳's business sector

REPORT: Then there's an @ASPI_ICPC report, our take on the data & the rapid 🌎 expansion of these companies by @He_Shumei @alexjoske @fryan @elisethoma5 & I: aspi.org.au/report/mapping…

REPORT: We analysed the party-state environment that shapes, limits & drives the global behaviour of these companies & through a series of case studies we looked at how some of these companies enable/support digital authoritarianism around the world

REPORT: We mapped 75 Smart City projects & that led us to developing a short case study on Huawei's 'safe city' solutions. These solutions focus heavily on the introduction of new public security capabilities. In developing countries they are often funded by China Exim Bank loans

REPORT: Many of the same companies deploying smart city-public security solutions & other sophisticated surveillance tech abroad - often Chinese state funded - have for a long time been used on Chinese citizens including in Xinjiang & Tibet aspi.org.au/report/mapping…

Xinjiang +REPORT: For example, CETC has research partnerships with universities @UTSEngage @OfficialUoM @tugraz (chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/map/marker-1…; chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/map/marker-86; chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/map/marker-49).

CETC also works with CSIRO on the Square Kilometre Array project chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/map/marker-1…

Xinjiang +REPORT: So what? Well, CETC is deeply implicated in the crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang. It's providing ‘predictive policing’ that draws in facial recognition data & personal info database which @hrw says is being used as a pretext to arbitrarily detain innocent people

CETC has also reportedly implemented a facial recognition project that alerts authorities when villagers from Muslim-dominated regions move outside of proscribed areas, effectively confining them to their homes a& workplaces, p16 if you download our report aspi.org.au/report/mapping…

Huawei provides Xinjiang's Public Security Bureau & police with technical support, training to ensure ‘Xinjiang’s social stability & long-term security’. In 2018, Huawei launched an ‘intelligent security’ innovation lab in collaboration with the Public Security Bureau in Urumqi

Hikvision has taken on huge security-related contracts in Xinjiang inc. a program implementing facial-recognition surveillance on mosques. Most concerning of all, Hikvision provides equipment & services directly to some 're-education' detention centres aspi.org.au/report/mapping…

ALMOST ENDING: This last point is SO important - the complicity of some of China’s tech giants in perpetrating or enabling human rights abuses - including the detention of an estimated 1.5m Chinese citizens & foreign citizens (inc. Australian citizens and permanent residents)...

..foreshadows the values, expertise & capabilities these companies are taking out into 🌎 markets. Just as we rightly hold western tech firms, esp FB, to increasing account for actions & poor behaviour - the same scrutiny must be applied to China's state-supported tech giants

Explore the map, check out the company overviews, read our report. Tweet it, complain about it, use the data in your own reporting & research. And please help flesh out the database: chinatechmap.aspi.org.au/#/contact-us/

https://twitter.com/fryan/status/1118749110524186624