China and the globalization of ICTs: Implications for international relations

As the People’s Republic of China accedes to the WTO, much speculation has been generated about the political impact of the opening of its telecommunications market to foreign firms and investors. Western policy-makers have tended to assume that the effect will be one of political liberalisation, but the view from Beijing sees siliconisation as useful for economic development but not a threat to the socialist one-party political system. This article evaluates the assumptions underlying such views, and draws out the implications for international politics. It procedes by looking at the potential for international economic, technological and security regimes to address the human rights concerns that arise when ICTs are adapted to work in the service of a surveillance state. It also focuses on the political implications that are consequent upon using ICTs for security cooperation between liberal-democratic and authoritarian states. It concludes by arguing that while current regimes are strong on addressing trade and technical issues concerning the globalisation of ICTs, the belief in a kind of technological determinism amongst policy-makers has left international regimes concerned with political issues deliberately weak. As concerns over the impact of the globalisation of ICTs on human rights become increasingly salient at both the international and domestic levels, however, a possible way of redressing this balance might be found in extending a communication analysis of security to include broader political issues.