China aims to strengthen its global influence through standards setting

The arcane world of international technical standards has become a primary arena in which trade, technological, and even philosophical preeminence is now being shaped. While the US has traditionally led in standards-setting, especially in cutting-edge technology sectors, China has raised its game substantially. Global standards in next generation sectors such as 5G, AI, and the architecture of the internet itself, will increasingly be Chinese or heavily China-influenced.

Why does this matter?

Countries that set standards position themselves at the front of the high technology pack. The US has been the technology leader since the middle of the last century, resulting in US technology standards, protocols and products becoming the formal or de facto standard for the world (think about Microsoft Office, for example). This has led to a mutually reinforcing cycle in which the widespread adoption of US standards has further cemented the primacy of US technologies (and US technology companies), which in turn further solidified the adoption of US standards.

Leadership for the next half century is now being contested. The current – and entirely understandable – preoccupation with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic should not obscure this reality. Little-noticed work being conducted at an alphabet soup of standards-setting institutions such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will play an outsized role in determining global technology leadership.   

Chinese companies ZTE, Dahua, and China Telecom are also active in helping to shape facial recognition and surveillance standards at the ITU. These standards are especially influential in determining how new technologies are deployed in developing countries. Human rights advocates have criticized some of the standards under discussion, claiming they cross the line from mere technical specifications to policy recommendations which tilt towards an intrusive degree of surveillance, potentially including ethnic and racial profiling.

China Mobile and ZTE have also proposed standards for smart streetlights which reflect ZTE’s design features and would place ZTE in a dominant market position. They also include video surveillance capabilities which the American Civil Liberties Union has cautioned could permit governments to essentially track anyone and everyone in public places.

China’s proactivity – and success – in international standards-setting bodies should not come as a surprise. It is only logical that countries which are at the forefront in developing particular technologies should also be at the forefront in developing the associated standards. Moreover, it is consistent with the role that western proponents of China’s integration into the global economy encouraged China to play: a constructive participant in multilateral governance bodies.

The underlying assumption however was that China’s engagement in these global regulatory bodies would gradually but inevitably bring China into greater conformance with the prevailing (and primarily Western) economic and governance philosophies which traditionally underpinned these institutions. In reality however, China could have a greater impact on these institutions (and the regulations they produce) than vice versa.

Greater urgency required

Criticizing China for its ambitions in setting standards would be counterproductive and hypocritical. A more productive response would be to first clearly recognize what’s at stake.  Deliberations currently unfolding in international standards-setting organizations around the world will establish the terms and conditions under which future technology leadership will be contested, and how – and within what philosophical context – new technologies will deployed. Has the US and its like-minded partners approached these deliberations with the required sense of urgency? Until now, the US has preferred a more organic, bottom-up approach to standards setting which moves at a slower pace than China’s more deliberate and expedient top-down approach. It’s clearly time for a rethink.

In any case though, rest assured that Chinese agencies and companies will not be asleep at the switch. While 5G networks have not even been fully rolled out yet, China Mobile and Huawei have already commenced research on 6G and are active in the ITU’s development of a “future technology vision proposal” which could help influence the subsequent development of 6G standards. The race for the future is already underway. It’s time for the US and other Western nations to get out of the starting blocks.

© The Hinrich Foundation. See our website Terms and conditions for our copyright and reprint policy. All statements of fact and the views, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author(s).