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China is using cyberattacks, influence operations and mass data theft to extend repressive authoritarian controls over its population and throughout the world, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report.
The 2020 report by the National Intelligence Council, an analysis unit, identified China as a leader among the world’s authoritarian states in employing “digital authoritarianism” as a means of ensuring political control at home and meddling in other countries.
As part of the anti-U.S. targeting, “Chinese intelligence officials analyzed multiple U.S. states’ … election voter registration data,” the report said.
The data was used to conduct a public opinion analysis of the 2020 presidential election.
“We assess that Beijing’s commercial access to personal data of other countries’ citizens, along with [artificial intelligence]-driven analytics, will enable it to automate the identification of individuals and groups beyond China’s borders to target with propaganda or censorship,” the council’s intelligence analysts concluded. “Such access and analytics also will enable Beijing to tailor its use of a range of online and offline carrots and sticks to its targets outside China — potentially on a large scale.”
The seven-page assessment, “Cyber Operations Enabling Expansive Digital Authoritarianism,” was declassified by Director National Intelligence Avril Haines last month.
China is using its control over Chinese overseas companies in the data collection effort. According to the report, Beijing in the next few years was ready to use commercial channels to expand digital authoritarianism.
“Beijing will be able to exploit Chinese companies’ expansion of telecommunications infrastructures and digital services, these enterprises’ growing presence in the daily lives of populations worldwide, and Beijing’s rising global economic and political influence,” the report said.
