China restricts data access after US research raised concerns: Report

As tensions with Washington rise, Beijing is taking steps to tighten its control over sensitive data. Beijing restricted access by overseas companies to Chinese data sources in view of a string of reports from US research organisations that authorities were concerned about, as per Wall Street Journal citing sources.

Senior authorities became concerned about American think-tank studies that focused on sensitive topics including cooperation between the military and corporate organisations and was based on open local data sources, according to the Journal.

The studies were from organisations like the Georgetown University Centre for Security and Emerging Technology and the Centre for a New American Security, which was co-founded by Kurt Campbell, who is currently the White House's Indo-Pacific coordinator.

Despite the administration's efforts to promote investment in China this year, there is still a dearth of openness and knowledge in large parts of the world's second-largest economy.

In order to delve further into certain topics and industries, think tanks, research organisations, and consulting firms have historically depended on local sources while researching the world's second-largest economy. However, Chinese businesses like Wind Information Co. ceased giving foreign customers in-depth information about the country's enterprises in recent months.

Beijing has recently targeted the local Bain & Co., Mintz Group, and Capvision offices. Additionally, the government recently approved a counter-espionage law that broadened the range of actions that may be regarded as spying.

“By taking crucial data off the table, public discourse on China will drift further from the truth. It’s a reckless move by China to limit access to the data,” said Dakota Cary, a China-focused consultant at Krebs Stamos Group who previously worked for CSET at Georgetown. “The US-China relationship will be made worse by this decision.”

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According to the Journal, which cited sources who had discussions with Chinese authorities, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the nation's powerful internet censor, informed data providers in March to limit access to sensitive data, including statistics and patents, from outside China.

The University of California, Berkeley stated in an online notification that organisations received warnings in March alerting them of impending limits on services, including the well-known academic database China National Knowledge Infrastructure.

“Many content types that were previously viewed as mundane have now been flagged by the Chinese authorities to be subject to government review,” the university’s library said in its notice. “The duration of such suspensions is not yet known, but we have been told that access will resume upon CAC determining that Chinese publishers have addressed their requirements for the review of the affected content types.”

Beijing was particularly interested in one research that was released by CSET in June under the title "Silicon Twist," according to the Journal. The military's access to American-designed chips used to train artificial intelligence models was the main topic of that study. The writers claimed to have studied thousands of purchase data to arrive at their results, and they provided instructions on how the US government might restrict access.

Another, from the same center, zeroed in on how Beijing employed programs to track and recruit talent from around the globe to boost its strategic goals, the Journal reported.

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