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CHINA According to legal experts, "the PIPL exerts certain exterritorial jurisdiction over data processing activities that happen outside China if the purpose is to provide products or services to individuals located in China, or to analyse or assess the behaviours of individuals located in China". This means that, on the basis of the PIPL, the Chinese government can force Chinese and other companies to turn over their data as soon as it involves any Chinese citizens. However, as in practice it is not possible to compartmentalise Chinese citizens' data, the Chinese government is likely to get access to whole datasets, including information pertaining to non-Chinese nationals. It has been suggested that the data collected by ride-hailing applications may be of interest to authoritarian regimes such as China due to the potential for it allow the gathering of data on individuals of intelligence interest. When combined with the Chinese government's sweeping powers to force companies operating in China to co-operate, this means that data acquired legitimately by such companies may find its way into the hands of the Chinese state, for further exploitation and analysis.

GCHQ observed that China’s advanced AI and machine learning industry means that it can process large amounts of raw data, which it can then attempt to leverage in order to meet strategic aims:

increasingly [the Chinese] are just looking to collect very large quantities of personal information and personal data … with not a huge amount of focus.

*** with those data sets … it increasingly allows them to control their own … state [and also to attempt to influence the] large anti-Chinese community outside China.

China is seeking technological dominance over the West and is targeting the acquisition of Intellectual Property and data in ten key industrial sectors in which the Chinese Communist Party intends China to become a world leader—many of which are fields where the UK has particular expertise.

As this Committee has previously warned, the West is over-reliant on Chinese technology. As the role of technology in everyday life increases exponentially, so therefore the UK will be at an increasing disadvantage compared to China—with all the attendant risks for our security and our prosperity. British technology and innovation is therefore critical and must be robustly protected.