China's 'digital Spying' is a big problem for India

Posted on 16th Sep 2020 by rohit kumar

Who is spying for China? This question has become a big challenge for security and intelligence agencies around the world. This case is very challenging for India too.

 

Especially at a time when China's Shenzhen-based information technology company 'Zenhua' has been severely accused of 'digital surveillance' on about 10,000 Indian citizens.

 

The English newspaper Indian Express has claimed this. It has also been claimed in the newspaper report that the wires of this company are connected with the Chinese government and especially the Communist Party of China.

 

The report claimed that apart from the President of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, many Union ministers, Chief Ministers, leaders of the opposition - such as Sonia Gandhi and senior officials are also on the company's target, as well as the Chief of Defense Staff, of the three armies. The chief and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, judges, and many well-known industrialists are also included.

 

The database that this Chinese company has created, not only has people with high positions, but also includes MLAs, mayors, and sarpanches.

 

Indian Express claims that when it wanted to contact the Chinese company to know its side, the company closed its website.

 

Not only India, but the 'Zenhua Data Information Technology Company' has also prepared a database of eminent personalities and government officials from the UK and Australia.

 

According to the English newspaper 'Daily Mail' published from London, the company has prepared a database of 40 thousand prominent people including the Queen and the Prime Minister.

 

At the same time, according to Australia's 'ABC News', the company has compiled a database of 35 thousand citizens, including prominent people and government officials. American media has made similar claims.

 

Digital espionage

 

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Rajiv Chandrasekhar says that data protection and privacy are no longer just subjects of study. They say that this is a period of digital espionage, which China is doing.

 

At the same time, the Congress has demanded an inquiry into the entire episode.

 

Congress Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted, "Did the Modi government know of this serious matter before? Or did the Indian government not know that we are being spied on? The Indian government is safeguarding the strategic interests of the country. Why is it failing again and again? China should give a clear message of hawk with its antics. "

 

He also raised the question of whether the Chinese company has done any work to influence the country's policies in any way in the last two years?

 

After this, many countries have started questioning the arrival of Chinese students, because reports have claimed that all the professionals have been engaged in collecting intelligence for China.

 

Question on china

 

Recently, a research institute called the Observer Research Foundation based in Delhi has also done research on it, which found that China has implemented the 'National Intelligence Law' only in the year 2017, which is clearly stated in Articles 7 and 14. When needed, China's institutions and citizens may have to work for government intelligence agencies.

 

Harsha Pant, head of the department of research on strategic affairs in the 'Observer Research Foundation' (ORF), told the BBC that after this information, Chinese citizens all over the world are being viewed with suspicion. He says that America has already imposed many restrictions on Chinese researchers and students.

 

They say that China has secured itself first, that is, no website can be opened in China until the Chinese government allows it. In this way, China first secured itself.

 

The way China started using cyberspace for intelligence and surveillance, neither a country has any break with it nor is any country able to monitor that kind of China.

 

However, it is true that 'artificial intelligence' has become an important means of gathering information around the world. Data banks are being created through this worldwide.

 

Pant says that this method of intelligence is not professional, because every Chinese citizen expects his government to collect information and convey it to its intelligence agencies. Because of this, the scientific or educational exchanges that took place between different decades had a profound effect.

 

It has been said in the research paper that the Strategic Support Force constituted under the People's Liberation Army of China has been tasked to gather all kinds of intelligence.

 

Although Pant says that there is no major concern for India, but he says that India is not taking it lightly because, in recent times, the Indian government has banned many Chinese apps for this reason.

 

data mining

Cybersecurity expert Rakshit Tandon says data mining and artificial intelligence are a big business, which run through apps and websites. This business is a business selling personal information related to people.

 

Tandon says that the time has come that the Indian government should also bring strict laws regarding data mining, otherwise the privacy of any citizen cannot be protected. He says that 'till now it is not even known where the data of Indian citizens using the internet is being stored and who is doing it?'

 

According to this report, those governments which call themselves liberal democracies are using artificial intelligence-based surveillance more. Chinese and American companies have sold artificial intelligence technology to nearly 100 governments so far.

 

According to the report, autocratic governments can misuse this technique more than liberal democratic governments.

 

The think tank report said, "Countries like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia are using artificial intelligence technology to monitor their citizens. But one can misuse this technique to serve their political interests."