The future of technology: Lessons from China

ABSTRACT

As the competition between the US and China heats up in the realm of technology, the US media has been increasingly portraying it as a simplistic battle between democracy and authoritarianism. This article, however, argues that the reality is that people everywhere—including in China and the United States—are all living in an increasingly digital world where surveillance has become ubiquitous, and accountability for human rights abuses more challenging. It presents five solutions which the United States needs to take to address these challenges, and make for a more fair and equitable future.

KEYWORDS:

• Technology
• authoritarianism
• AI
• TikTok
• democracy
• China

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Tamir Israel, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch on technology and human rights, for contributing to the writing of this piece.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Maya Wang

Maya Wang is acting China director at Human Rights Watch. Wang has researched and written extensively on a wide range of human rights issues in China, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet. In recent years, her original research on China’s use of technology for mass surveillance, including the use of biometrics, artificial intelligence, and big data, has helped galvanize international attention on these developments in China and globally. Her work can be found at https://www.hrw.org/about/people/maya-wang and on her Twitter account @wang_maya.

Frederike Kaltheuner

Frederike Kaltheuner is the director for technology and human rights at Human Rights Watch. Previously, she was the director of the European AI Fund, a special advisor for the Vice President of the European Commission, a Mozilla tech policy fellow, and director at Privacy International. She is the editor of “Fake AI,” a book about pseudoscience, snake oil, and hype, and the co-author of Datengereichtigkeit, a book about the relationship between data and justice. Her work can be found at https://www.hrw.org/about/people/frederike-kaltheuner and on her Twitter account @F_Kaltheuner.

Amanda Klasing

Amanda Klasing is the director of the US Democracy Initiative at Human Rights Watch. She co-led the Women’s Rights Division from 2018-2021, and served as the first-ever monitoring, evaluation, and learning lead at Human Rights Watch. She is a co-founder of the Human Rights Methodology Lab, a collaboration that fosters innovation to improve human rights research methodologies across disciplines. Her work can be found at https://www.hrw.org/about/people/amanda-klasing and on her Twitter account @AMKlasing.