We must pop China’s spy balloon

The Chinese spy balloon fiasco in the US should be enough to dispel any doubts that Beijing will do whatever it wants in its efforts to gather other people’s secrets. In fact, the observation from Washington is that China has launched an intelligence-gathering effort on both the US and Australia that is more extensive, intense and invasive than anything seen before.

This makes it common sense to pay close attention when thousands of surveillance devices with cameras and microphones installed are scattered around government buildings and public places. As we report on Thursday, almost 1000 Chinese-made surveillance cameras and other devices have been installed, including in Defence, Home Affairs and the Attorney-General’s departments. Climate Change and Energy has 157, Treasury a further 115.

Devices by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua, both partly owned by the Chinese Communist Party, were banned by Australia’s Five-Eyes partners the US and UK in November last year because of concerns they were gathering data that could be fed to Beijing. The companies are based in Hangzhou, in eastern China, and are among the world’s leading providers of video surveillance technology and artificial intelligence. All companies headquartered in China are subject to the Chinese National Intelligence Law 2017, which requires them to co-operate with Chinese intelligence agencies if requested to hand over data.

Opposition spokesman on cyber security James Paterson says the surveillance cameras pose both a national security concern and a moral concern. Both companies supply technology to enable the mass surveillance operation through facial-recognition technology that Beijing runs against the minority Uighur population in China’s Xinjiang province.

Advances in artificial intelligence open up a new world of possibilities for governments intent on monitoring their citizens and the activities of other nations.

As an authoritarian regime not constrained by the ethics that direct the activities of elected governments, China is indeed a special case. Given its demonstrated proclivities, the answer is obvious. We must disconnect.