China’s ‘developmental’ security approach

China’s ‘developmental’ security approach

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

• Recent instances of Chinese crackdown on U.S.-based firms as well as domestic firms dealing with overseas clients.

Rationale behind Chinese crackdown

• The U.S. in October 2022, increased its export controls which made it much more difficult for China to obtain and manufacture advanced computing chips and supercomputers.
• The recent actions by the Chinese authorities seem to be motivated by vengeance against the U.S. efforts to restrict Chinese tech advancements.
• By undertaking crackdown measures on American firms and by limiting their access to the vast domestic market, China aims to capitalise on the divergence that exists between the U.S. administration and the American business community over the former’s China policy.
• The Chinese crackdown on consultancy and due diligence firms is expected to have ripple effects across all overseas businesses operating in China as businesses depend on consultancy firms to navigate the regulatory framework which is often challenging, especially in a country like China where there is uncertainty in the regulatory framework.
• However, various other experts also believe that there exists a domestic component to these actions.

National security at the forefront in Chinese politics

• Chinese authorities have justified each of the recent crackdown actions with the help of national security concerns.
• Experts point out that the threat to security has now become a ubiquitous concern in all aspects of governance in China as the Chinese administration under the leadership of President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised that “the idea of development cannot be isolated from that of security” and the need to balance development with security has been highlighted in multiple instances.
• This attempt by China to securitise its development has resulted in according greater significance to various non-traditional security issues.
• Among such non-traditional security issues, issues such as cybersecurity and data/information security have become the key cause for concern in China.
• This has become evident through the recent attempts to strengthen cybersecurity and counter-espionage laws.
• China recently amended its Counter-Espionage Law with an aim to widen the scope of espionage by treating all “documents, data, materials, and items relating to national security and interests,” at par with state secrets.
• These latest amendments also expand the definition of espionage to include cyberattacks against state organs or critical information infrastructure.
• The changes have also empowered authorities to seize data, electronic equipment, information on personal property, and even ban border crossing.
• The latest instances of crackdown also reflect the approach of “developmental security”.
• There is this belief among the Chinese administration that the foreign businesses operating in China are indulging in espionage activities and there exists a suspicion that due diligence as well as consultancy firms are using their networks to extract sensitive data under the garb of free exchange of information.