UK response to China's tech ambitions labelled 'incoherent and muted'
- Reference: 1657515547
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/11/tech_and_uk_foreign_policy/
- Source link:
Published last week, the [1]report , titled "Encoding values: Putting tech at the heart of UK foreign policy", follows up on previous policy work that recommended the UK ensure that its foreign policy recognize the value and importance of shaping technology industries and standards.
The need to do so – and do it well – is prompted by two key forces: China's efforts to gain global influence; and Big Tech's emergence as "non-state multinational actors" that provide infrastructure on which states rely, while also providing the spaces in which critical social and diplomatic discourses take place.
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But the report finds that – despite complementary policies that call for the UK to become a "science and technology superpower" – British efforts to engage in existing dialogs that define the future of tech are hard to identify.
The UK is being left out of conversations on transatlantic tech cooperation
The document identifies China, the US, and the EU as each working toward strategies for regulation of technology, but notes that the UK's involvement in discussions between the US and EU is "limited". Some of China's efforts are in plain sight – the report notes a "multitude of Chinese-driven internet standards going through different ITU working groups at any one time" – but the report points out that China is mustering votes for its standards among like-minded autocracies, sidelining technical merit as the driver of standards processes.
But in some areas, the UK just isn't ready to join the conversation. The report calls for the nation's government to "clearly articulate its position on data sharing, privacy and private-sector regulation, so that it can establish a starting point for discussions on deeper cooperation with the US and the EU."
[3]
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But without well-developed positions on such matters, the report's authors assert "The UK is being left out of conversations on transatlantic tech cooperation between the US and EU." Bilateral and ad hoc arrangements with other nations, the report adds, will not be enough.”
Without a change, the report fears the UK will become "a rule-taker rather than a rule-maker".
[5]China again signals desire to shape IPv6 standards
[6]Tech spec experts seek allies to tear down ISO standards paywall
[7]IETF publishes HTTP/3 RFC to take the web from TCP to UDP
And that may be bad not only for the UK, but for the rest of the world. The UK's weak engagement in such matters means the nation's undoubted expertise won't be present during important discussions.
"The Government now needs to extend the UK's influence within the global technology landscape, to ensure that future technologies are developed and used in ways that align with our values and, crucially, uphold the rights and freedoms of people in the UK and across the world," the report concludes.
[8]
If only the UK had a functional government, rather than being led as it currently is by a [9]caretaker prime minister whose tech policy legacy is a shambles . ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmfaff/170/report.html
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ysv0yevygZXwrX32oo456gAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ysv0yevygZXwrX32oo456gAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ysv0yevygZXwrX32oo456gAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/china_ipv6_plan/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/31/iso_paywall_battle/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/07/http3_rfc_9114_published/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ysv0yevygZXwrX32oo456gAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/07/boris_johnson_tech_legacy/?td=rt-3a
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Two possibilities
Presumably the galaxy brains behind Brexit like Daniel Hannan and Dominic Cummings had both fallen asleep in GCSE/O-Level geography when the teacher was talking about spheres of influence, or they sold Brexit to a credulous populace on a lie.
Unfortunately for the rest of us this problem, as well as many other problems with Brexit, can't be fixed by throwing more flags, bunting, and spitfires at it.
Alien Information for Powerful Education and Almighty Entertainment ‽ .
Failure to engage with home grown inventive and radically disruptive assets, .... [and it is a National Intelligence Disgrace to realise that also a present omission for Vital and Virile HyperRadioProACTive IT] ..... exercising and pioneering with landscape shape shifting technologies exploiting the myriad 0day vulnerability opportunities in Novel AIMethodologies, ....[an abject but fully understandable failure born of the fear of its revolutionary departure from traditional norms of human SCADA Systems Command and Control] .... both virtually and practically guarantees their worth being betatested and exported to foreign fields of similar interest and endeavour for AWEsome Future AIdDevelopment delivering Future Universal Leading Advantage.
Now, .... admittedly, ..... that is a very bold statement of fantastic fact which very easily can be proven and/or prove itself to not also be just a futuristic fiction ...... with all manner of necessary proofs/provings employed and deployed for an elite edutainment programming of the masses.
And .... as such proofs/proving are certainly necessary for a wide spread of immediate relief in any state or environment of petrified and stagnant paralysis, one can fully expect them to appear from practically nowhere in such situations/times/places/spaces causing more than just a ripple and stir in Status Quo Operations.
The UK's response to China's well-publicized efforts to use technology standards to shape the world in its image has been "incoherent and muted" according to report by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
That surely was not surprising news to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee? Such appears to be the UK's default standard condition/position with regard to gaining global influence technologies and so much more beyond their limited control and comprehension.
One has to ask, and it is hereby so asked ....... What is/would be the UK's response to Alien Information efforts to use technology standards to reshape the world in well-publicised presentations/flash media iterations ‽ . Incoherent and muted would be a quantum leap up from deadly silent and non-existent, methinks.
"clearly articulate its position on data sharing, privacy and private-sector regulation"
It's very simple: "where's the money for me and my friends?" UK believed it could become a heaven for business not liking regulations - just to find the other blocks will enact their own and UK is no longer powerful enough to ignore them.
Ha....."leveling up" from a zero base, I suppose!!
Quote: "...The Government now needs to extend the UK's influence within the global technology landscape...."
......as if the UK had ANY technology landscape of its own!!!!
Aerospace: Napier, Gloster, Supermarine, Hawker, Short Brothers, Fairey, Blackburn, English Electric, de Havilland..........
Computer: English Electric (KDF9), Atlas (Ferranti, Plessey), ICL, INMOS......
Automotive: Everything in the UK today is owned elsewhere (France, Germany, India, China)......
Even the navy ships we build are regularly "dead in the water"....six of them are "in for repairs" as we speak. (See: Type 45: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/royal-navy-destroyers-engine-problems-in-port-russia-ukraine-b981191.html)
Ha.....what "technology landscape" would that be?
Simple Question, with a simple answer:
Country 1 is a member of a political superblock, which features some of the biggest economies in the world, and overall makes a good effort to act in a spirit of mutual support.
Country 2 is not a member.
Both countries are equal in all other measurements: Area, population size, military assets, economic strength, etc.
Now for the question: Which of these countries has more pull on the global political stage?
Say 'Thank you' to the moronic Brexiteers
The UK is in this position thanks to Russian misinformation/campaigning for Brexit, voter apathy, and the moronic Brexiteers themselves. WTF did the Brexiteers think was going to happen? Instead of being a big fish in an economically-strong hurd, they are now a rogue hamster that is going to get squashed between the jostling big three rabid hippopotami, China, the EU, and the US. This is what Brexiteers were selling, and way too many morons bought into it. So now they can reap the milkshakes they've sown. The UK's only choice is to enjoy their hamstership, join BRICS if it ever turns into an effective trade block, or go crawling back to the EU with their kneepads on and ready swallow.