GCHQ chief Sir Jeremy Fleming warns of threats posed by Chinese technology
The prospect of China monitoring and tracking people using its own version of GPS technology was one of several concerns raised about the increasingly widespread global adoption of Chinese technologies.
China is using technology to expand its sphere of influence, posing a serious long term threat to Britain's security, the head of the UK's GCHQ spy agency has warned, in a rare public address.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Annual Security Lecture in Central London on Tuesday, Sir Jeremy Fleming said that China has been attempting to undermine global security by manipulating technology with its financial and technological might.
He said that the UK and its allies needed to take immediate action to address this serious issue. According to Fleming, China is trying to create "client economies and governments," by exporting technologies that are used in everything from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to ground-breaking new tools used by businesses.
Whilst the comparatively low prices of such items make them very competitive, they come with hidden costs that put the security and privacy of the nations using them in jeopardy.
"Mortgaging the future by buying into the Chinese vision for technology may be attractive to some in the short term - particularly for nations suffering the stress of higher energy and food costs resulting from Russian's invasion of Ukraine," the GCHQ chief warned.
"We need to offer alternative solutions that are practical, that are affordable, and are backed by international funding or market investment. If we don't, in the longer term, the hidden costs of China's cheap technology solutions will become very obvious."
In particular, Fleming expressed concerns about BeiDou, the Chinese equivalent of the US GPS and the EU Galileo satellite navigation systems.
"BeiDou is now present in over 120 countries around the world. And we think that's a problem because it is on the one hand providing very accurate services akin to GPS and the convenience that comes from that, but on the other side its capabilities, its data, are openly available to the Chinese state."
The spy chief said that Beijing's plan for digital currency shows the country's intentions to learn from Russia's mistakes and protect itself from the effects of sanctions should Beijing attempt to invade Taiwan.
According to Fleming, the UK wants to compete and work with a powerful China, but the real problem is how the Chinese Communist Party uses or abuses their country's power.
On Tuesday, the intelligence chief was asked whether he would be worried if his children used TikTok. He replied that he wouldn't worry about it but added that he would talk to his children about how they see their personal data on their gadgets because people needed to realise that "there is no free good here."
Sir Jeremy does not often make public statements, but this is not the first time he has expressed concern about a potential danger posed by the expanding presence of China's technology in the UK.
Last year, he warned the Western countries that they must take steps to prevent China from dominating key technologies and taking over the "global operating system."
In a joint appearance in July this year, the chiefs of the UK's MI5 and USA's FBI raised alarm about China's efforts in economic espionage and hacking campaigns.
MI5 director general Ken McCallum said China's attempts to obtain Western technology, expertise, and research have been professionally planned and organised on a large scale across decades.
FBI director Chris Wray referred to China's activities as a complex, enduring and widespread danger to the US, UK and their allies. He urged business leaders to cooperate with the FBI and MI5 so they could continue to gather information about this danger - information that could also help businesses to determine if working with China is worth the potential loss of confidential data.