Allen Yu

Opinion | How the rise of Chinese tech companies offers hope for a clean internet by ending US dominance

While the US is urging its allies to purge Chinese companies from the internet under its ‘clean network’ programme, the dominance of US tech firms and their dismal track record in protecting privacy is the real threat to people and countries everywhere

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Pedestrians use their mobile phones near a Huawei ad at a bus stop in central London. Britain flip-flopped and finally acceded to US pressure to ban the Chinese company from taking part in the building of the country’s 5G network. Photo: AFP

Allen Yu

Published: 3:30am, 26 Aug 2020Updated: 4:13am, 26 Aug 2020

With much pomp and circumstance, the United States has proposed to the world a brand new beginning, with the expansion of its “clean network” initiative. The enemy is China, which must be purged from the reconfigured internet.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the programme is a “comprehensive approach to guarding our citizens’ privacy and our companies’ most sensitive information from aggressive intrusions by malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party”, addressing “the long-term threat to data privacy, security, human rights and principled collaboration posed to the free world from authoritarian malign actors”.

Under the initiative, the US government will undertake five lines of action and encourages its partners globally to follow suit. The US will work towards blocking Chinese telecommunication companies from connecting to US telecommunications networks and removing from app stores Chinese apps that “threaten [US] privacy, proliferate viruses, and spread propaganda and disinformation”.

It aims to prevent Chinese smartphone manufacturers from pre-installing, or otherwise making available for download, US apps on Chinese apps stores. It will try to prevent US citizens’ personal information and businesses’ intellectual property, including Covid-19 vaccine research, from being stored and processed on Chinese cloud-based systems.

03:07

Stop offering ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat, Washington urges US tech companies

Finally, it will ensure that the undersea cables connecting partner countries are not subverted for intelligence gathering by Chinese government.