The head of Britain's intelligence and security agency GCHQ will warn Western countries on Tuesday of
the "enormous threat"
of China seeking to use its technological dominance for surveillance purposes, calling on them to act urgently.
Jeremy Fleming, director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHG), is due to tell defense experts in a speech that the Chinese authorities are looking to
“profit”
from their technologies, such as their satellite systems and virtual currencies. .
What represent, according to him,
“a huge threat for all of us”.
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Jeremy Fleming, head of the intelligence agency since 2017, must call on the United Kingdom and its allies to respond urgently to these threats, according to a press release from the agency released Monday evening.
“At GCHQ, it is our privilege and also our duty to see the pivotal moments when history changes without us realizing it.
It looks like one of those moments
,” he said.
Next launch of the
“digital yuan”
“Our advantage in our future technology strategy is based on what we decide to do now as a community. I am confident that together we can turn this moment to our advantage
,” said Jeremy Fleming.
His intervention comes at a time when China wants to launch its digital currency, the
“digital yuan”
, arousing concern among specialists who believe that authoritarian regimes could use this technology for surveillance and control purposes.
Such a currency could
"allow China to partially free itself from the kind of international sanctions currently in place against the regime of (President Vladimir) Putin in Russia"
, according to Jeremy Fleming.
China also finalized in 2020 Beidou, its satellite navigation system, a competitor to the American GPS.
"Many believe that China is developing a powerful anti-satellite capability, with the aim of preventing other nations from accessing space in the event of a conflict"
, according to Jeremy Fleming.
"
And there are fears that the technology could be used to track individuals
."