China’s domestic surveillance programmes benefit foreign spies

IN MARCH ELON MUSK, the world’s third-richest man, spoke to a conference in Beijing by video link. The cars that Tesla sells in China do not, Mr Musk insisted, share data with American security services. He was responding to the news that the Chinese armed forces had banned Teslas from their facilities over such concerns. A month later the firm took to Chinese social media to assure customers that the numerous cameras in their vehicles were “not activated outside North America”, and so could not be used to snoop.

Concerns about security define the trade of technology between America and China. Most attention is focused on the extent to which Chinese giants such as TikTok and Huawei might be infiltrating America for nefarious purposes. But China has had concerns of its own. After the contours of American surveillance were laid bare in 2013 by Edward Snowden, a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower, the Chinese government began a campaign to replace all Western technology in government offices, lest it be used to spy. The brouhaha over Tesla’s cars shows how much security concerns have grown in the decade since Mr Snowden’s revelations. As connectivity becomes part of more consumer products, paranoia about their other uses rises.