Read The Diplomat, Know The Asia-Pacific
In Southeast Asia, Beijing is building the digital infrastructure, but not (yet) writing the rules.
Across Southeast Asia, Chinese firms have laid fiber-optic cable, built smart-city platforms, supplied 5G networks, and even donated laptops to defense ministries. By one common account in Washington, this is what losing looks like: through its Digital Silk Road, Beijing is exporting not just technology but authoritarianism itself.
But ask the officials who actually regulate these systems what rules they follow, and a more complicated picture emerges. Indonesia’s cybersecurity agencies enforce technical standards developed in Geneva. The Philippines modeled its data privacy law on European regulation. Malaysia’s approach to artificial intelligence borrows from U.N. principles and regional frameworks. In three of the Digital Silk Road’s most important partner countries, Chinese hardware is widespread but Chinese rules are not.
China may be winning many of the contracts to build out Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure, but Beijing is making less headway on the rules. Understanding this – and the factors behind this reality – complicates the prevailing concern about digital authoritarianism. However, there is one scenario in which the hand-wringing about digital authoritarianism could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
