Battle in the Quasi-Cognitive Domain, Data Exit Security Assessment Measures, 5th Digital China Summit
Issue 40, 22 August 2022
Hello,
China Tech Dispatch is back after a brief break. China watchers have been busy in the past few days with a number of political and other news related to China. The biggest headline grabber was US Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. The second important event was the top secret and high security "Beidaihe meeting" of China's top leaders in the run-up to the 20th Party Congress later this year.
As the political events in Taiwan and China are not the core focus of this newsletter, I recommend reading my colleague Manoj Kewalramani's daily blog Tracking People's Daily covering Pelosi's visit and the Beidaihe meeting. I also recommend reading an explainer by Lizzi C. Lee on what happens at the Beidaihe retreat.
Furthermore, Since Nancy Pelosi's visit has reignited the Taiwan debate, I recommend reading this Takshashila Intelligence Estimate on Taiwan published a few months ago. Manoj and I also recorded a podcast on the visit recently. You can listen to the podcast here.
Lastly, a few days ago my colleague Manoj and I wrote an article "The people’s liberation army: xi’s power base in the communist party central committee" for 9Dashline. Do give it a read.
Regards,
Megha
I. Military and Warfare
A. Battle in the Quasi-Cognitive Domain
An article in PLA Daily by Yang Cunshe from the Institute of War from the Academy of Military Sciences explores the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domain operations. The aim of the article is to gain insight into the operational characteristics and development trends of the cognitive domain and its practical significance for winning future wars.
The writer has outlined eight aspects and operational characteristics and development trends of the cognitive domain.
The cognitive domain is the key domain for the transformation of military superiority into political victory.
By changing the perception of an adversary, its decisions and actions can be changed.
Cognitive domain operations show the characteristics of all-around, multi-level, time-space, cross-domain, etc., blurring the boundaries between wartime and peace, front and rear, across battlefields and national boundaries.
The key is to seize the right to define the nature of the action or activity, the right to dominate the process, and the right to judge the outcome.
Morality and jurisprudence are the focus of contention.
Information is the basic "ammunition" for cognitive offense and defense.
Military operations have a key supporting role in cognitive shaping.
Cognitive countermeasures are increasingly being used directly in warfare.
These eight principles by the author are comprehensive and cover various aspects of the operations in the Cognitive domain. There have been many articles on the various aspects of the operations in the cognitive domain in the past few months, hence not elaborating more on these eight aspects. I recommend reading previous issues of China Tech Dispatch for the same. Here are some to start with:
Guard against the "White Elephant Effect", Cognitive Battle in the "Post-Truth Era", Cloud Training
‘Invisibility Cloak’, Operating Mechanisms of Cognitive Warfare, and Realistic Battlefield Metaverse
Cognitive Warfare and Questioning Efficacy of Tech Superiority in War
Metaverse for Cognitive Warfare and Effect of Ukraine War on China's Tech Sector
B. Transform the power of science and technology into victory
An article by Peng Bo from Air Force Engineering University highlights the importance of science and technology for victory on the battlefield.
The auhtor has highlighted importance of 'technological foresight' (Kējì yùjiàn 科技预见 ), 'technological raids' (Kējì túxí 科技突袭), and 'technological transformation' (Kējì zhuǎnhuà 科技转化).
'Technological foresight' refers to the ability to predict the 'possible' and 'feasible' technological improvements necessary to achieve victory in wars. 'Technological raid' refers to a sudden attack with weapons, equipment, and technical means unfamiliar or unexpected to the opponent. Lastly, 'technological transformation' refers to the promotion of the continuous transformation of scientific and technological power into combat power, improving coordination between weapons and operators, and combat effectiveness of equipment.
Although the contents of the article are not ground-breaking, this comes amid the recent media reports of PLA recruitment relaxing age limits and prioritizing STEM skills. The article highlighting the importance of science and technology reflects consistency in the theory and actions of the PLA leaders towards building an inteliigentised PLA.
Additional Reading
Analysis of the development of intelligent command information system
Evolution of Offensive and Defensive Tactics of Unmanned Swarms
Future of Wars - Understanding Changes in "Instant Advantage Windows"
II. SinoSync
A. Data Exit Security Assessment Measures
CAC released "Measures for Security Assessment of Data Exports" earlier in July. These measures are placed to asses the data going out of the country. These measures will be effective from September 1, 2022.
All the entities who want to export data overseas must submit the data exit security assessment to the national cybersecurity and informatization department through local departments. This includes the export of data under the following circumstances:
The data processor provides important data overseas.
Critical information infrastructure operators and data processors that process personal information of more than 1 million people provide personal information overseas.
Data processors who have provided personal information of 100,000 people or sensitive personal information of 10,000 people abroad since January 1 of the previous year have provided personal information abroad.
Other situations required to declare data export security assessment as stipulated by the national cybersecurity and informatization department.
Article 19 defines "important data" as "data that may endanger national security, economic operation, social stability, public health and safety, etc. once it is tampered with, destroyed, leaked, or illegally obtained or used."
These assessment measures are important given that the government of China considers data as an important factor of production in the economy. In 2019, the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed for the first time that data should be used as a factor of production to participate in the distribution and accelerate the exploration and construction of a data-based system. This was agreed upon in the Fourth Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee.
Additional Reading
B. SAMR readout on Jurisdiction of the Platforms
China's State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) recently conducted a national-level meeting. Here is the readout of the meeting released by SAMR on Aug 19. Here are some excerpts from the readout which I found interesting.
"It is necessary to pay close attention to the normalized supervision of the platform economy, accelerate the introduction of policies and measures to support the healthy development of platform enterprises, focus on building a regulatory system focusing on prevention in advance, and improve the supervision tools for early detection and correction as soon as possible."
(要抓紧抓好平台经济常态化监管，加快出台支持平台企业健康发展的政策措施，着力构建以事前预防为重点的监管制度体系，尽快完善早发现早纠正的梯次监管工具。)
"It is necessary to strengthen the party's overall leadership of market supervision, further strengthen theoretical arming, understand the 'the greatest nation', go all out to implement the "two maintenance", and constantly enhance maintenance awareness, firm maintenance actions, and improve maintenance capabilities. To ensure the maintenance effect, unswervingly and deeply promote the comprehensive and strict governance of the party."
(要加强党对市场监管工作的全面领导，进一步强化理论武装，深刻领悟“国之大者”，全力以赴把“两个维护”落到实处，不断增强维护意识、坚定维护行动、提高维护能力、确保维护效果，坚定不移纵深推进全面从严治党。)
Additional Reading
C. 5th Digital China Summit
Earlier in July, the 5th Digital China Summit was held in Fuzhou in east China's Fujian Province from July 23 to 24. The summit focussed on innovation-driven new changes and digitalization-led new landscapes in pursuing the Digital China initiative.
A drone for topographic mapping. [Photo by Sun Chi/chinadaily.com.cn]
The summit was co-sponsored by government authorities including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology(MIIT), and the provincial government of Fujian.
The summit had a special exhibition to display the latest achievements in building a "digital China" over the last five years. This year, the focus was also on advanced immersive technologies like metaverse, virtual images, artificial intelligence, etc.
A hat with sensors on display. The hat is a part of a non-invasive brain-computer interface acquisition and computing system. [Photo by Sun Chi/chinadaily.com.cn]
A model of MetaBrain, an intelligent computing center. [Photo by Sun Chi/chinadaily.com.cn]
China's state-affiliated media CGTN had done a special report on the event and highlighted some key products in the summit. Live: A digital China - How are digital solutions transforming industries and our lives?
Digital Yuan at the 5th Digital China Summit
Digital Yuan, China's legal digital cryptocurrency found a lot of fanfare at the 5th Digital China Summit. China Construction Bank (CCB) displayed a mobile app for digital Yuan, a tangible digital yuan wallet, and a chip card that combines all the functions that enable users to do payments anywhere. Moreover, Global Times reported that the Fuzhou government issued free coupons with a total value of 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) for residents to encourage local consumption and digital payments in digital Yuan. Currently, over 10,000 vendors in Fuzhou are reportedly using digital Yuan to process payments.
Several industries and banks in China have formed a digital Yuan industry alliance to promote the development of digital currency. This alliance has 37 members including several state-owned banks and industry members like Huawei and Newland Digital Tech. Wang Jing, Chairman of Newland Digital Tech, was elected the first chairman of the digital yuan industry alliance.
Although the digital Yuan is used primarily for domestic payments as of now, the internationalization of the digital currency is also a possibility with the internationalization of the Yuan.
[Graphic Photo: Tang Tengfei/GT]
According to CGTN, China's digital economy now accounts for 39.8% of its GDP. The same report also states that China's digital economy has grown from approx. 4 trillion USD to approx. 6.7 trillion USD in the last five years.
Additional Reading
Megha Pardhi is a Research Analyst at The Takshashila Institution. She tweets at @pardhimegha21.