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China's Approach to Technology

The Chinese also target data. The UK Government has said that it considers data and "its associated infrastructure" to be a "strategic national asset", as the NCSC explained:

"data has both economic and intelligence value. It can be used to train artificial intelligence systems and identify individual targets of interest for future exploitation. It also has applications in research and development and commercial decision-making."

Much of China's data acquisition is conducted with a view to maintaining the stability of the Communist regime. GCHQ told us that China's overarching aim is to identify and monitor the threat posed by its population. The Intelligence Community explained:

"the Chinese state views surveillance and big data analytics as essential tools to maintain Chinese social and economic stability and national security. It collects data from a wide range of sources, such as China's public surveillance apparatus, privately and commercially available, and open source information. The collection and aggregation of personally identifiable information and bulk datasets enables the ChIS [Chinese Intelligence Services] to identify and track targets of interest, and will aid technology development, such as the training of AI systems. China is investing heavily in AI through academia, the purchasing of AI technology companies, and through indigenous development."

However, the Chinese are also assessed to target data for intelligence purposes. The Intelligence Community cited the hacking in 2015 of the United States (US) Office of Personnel Management with the loss of personal information of more than 20m US government officials—as evidence of this. MI5 explained that even apparently innocuous personal information can be useful when combined with other sources of data:

"in isolation most of these data sets don't enable you to do much at all, but when you build a layered mosaic [of data sets] it does then enable *** it enables them potentially to talent spot people that they might be able to make a recruitment approach to …."

The Chinese Intelligence Services (ChIS) may use bulk data to provide additional intelligence to support their targeting efforts against UK politicians. We were told that using data in this way could "identify background details on the [potential] target, including finances, personal weaknesses and the circles of the people they are close to".

Data comes in many forms, and data-collection platforms all have potential intelligence value. China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), billed as a Chinese version of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), came into effect in November 2021. This law asserts state power over data belonging to both Chinese and foreign companies.