C3S ISSUE BRIEF XXXI - Decentered Algorithmic Control: Comparing China's AI Surveillance Frameworks Across Five Peripheral Regions: By Mohamed Safwanuddin
- Chennai Centre for China Studies
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
By Subramanyam Sridharan
Abstract
In recent years, Artificial Intelligence has increasingly become embedded within state governance, intersecting technology, political control and sovereignty within the broader framework of national policies. China stands out as an exemplary case, where AI-driven surveillance systems work concurrently with legal and institutional frameworks that sustain governance and state control to ensure data security and revitalize the existing digital infrastructure. This paper explores how these developments contribute to digital control, with the concept of “digital authoritarianism” at the threshold. It also examines the existing AI regulatory laws and other digital governance frameworks that have led to the adoption of new and emerging forms of AI in state control, with Xinjiang province analyzed as a potential experimentation model for subsequent implementation in other regions of the country. Additionally, the paper identifies the contrasts and convergence of the AI initiatives undertaken in other parts of the country in comparison with the Xinjiang province to analyze the parallel surveillance architectures. It also traces the potential threat to human rights in the Xinjiang province, as well as other forms of threats to individual and collective rights that culminate as a result of China’s path toward becoming an AI-driven state. The study will examine White Papers, official documents from government sources as well as reports published by non-governmental agencies to provide an in-depth analysis of China’s AI state structure. By positioning China’s regional surveillance practices within broader debates on sovereignty, technology and human rights, this study contributes to understanding how artificial intelligence is reshaping governance within a state-controlled framework in the Twenty-first century.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, China, Xinjiang province, digital surveillance, Human Rights
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Mohamed Safwanuddin is a Research Intern at C3S. The views expressed here are of the author's own and do not reflect the views of C3S.)
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