Worry less about Russia and more about China taking over the 'Global Operating System'

[GoneOffShore]

Just ran across this in The Register.

Thought provoking and worrying.

Jeremy Fleming, who is the head of GCHQ warning about the threat that China poses now.

Fleming named Russia and China as the main threats and revised an analogy he's previously used that asserted "Russia is affecting the weather, whilst China is shaping the climate.

"That remains the case. But when it comes to technology, I'll use another analogy.

"The threat posed by Russia's activity is like finding a vulnerability on a specific app on your phone – it's potentially serious, but you can probably use an alternative.  However, the concern is that China's size and technological weight means that it has the potential to control the global operating system."

States like China, he said, are readying to implement emerging technologies, and "have a competing vision for the future of cyberspace and are playing strongly into the debate around international rules and standards.

[Voltaire2]

1. The 'threat' posed by China

is that they are becoming the dominant economic and technological power. In other words they are winning our game and that is pissing us off, as it is 'our' game.

Perhaps if we defunded half of our stupidly bloated military budget and used those funds to invest in non-military infrastructure development we would not be struggling to keep up.

[GoneOffShore]

2. Not so much that it's 'our game' but that if they win they change the DNA of the internet

And further enhance authoritarian power.

[Voltaire2]

3. nah that is just self serving bullshit from people upset at having to share control

Anyone paying attention to what has actually happened knows that this is utter bullshit:

"It was a virtuous circle: government and private sector investment identified new markets and fuelled new research. Shared values among involved nations meant industry standards for emerging technologies tended to be global," he said. "This in turn encouraged free-trade and international dialogue. Those countries at the forefront gained wealth and status. This enabled national security, improved the lot of citizens, and drew in funding for the next wave of investment.

What we created serves our corporate masters, not the people. And what we have is an authoritarian global surveillance state, only it is ours, not theirs.

[GoneOffShore]

4. Alrighty then - YMMV

The Middle Kingdom has always been on the side of authoritarianism.

At least in the west some of us are still fighting back. And granted that some of the Chinese are as well, but it would appear to be a battle that they have already lost.