Protecting Technology Innovation in the Indo-Pacific

Protecting Technology Innovation in the Indo-Pacific

Technologies such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure are essential to everyday life in the modern world. Innovation in this area is an “increasingly foundational source of geopolitical power,” said Nathaniel Fick, State Department Ambassador-at-Large of the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy in recent Congressional testimony. The United States is prioritizing the responsible use of this emerging technology by allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.

The United States has conducted talks with Singapore, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia, and various Pacific Island countries to create solidarity on “a growing set of technology topics of high geopolitical significance,” said Ambassador Fick.

“These efforts cut across the digital ecosystem, from basic cybersecurity protections to 5G networks to other aspects of digital infrastructure, including data centers, low-Earth orbit satellites and undersea cables, as well as to the new generation of enabling technologies, including AI.”

While consensus was reached, not all countries in the region are using these new technologies responsibly, said Ambassador Fick:

“We face well-resourced and technologically capable competitors and adversaries who possess authoritarian visions and use long-term, technology-based strategies to advance those aspirations. These competitors most notably include the [People’s Republic of China] PRC, which wields all elements of national power to try to bend the rules-based international order in its favor.”

The United States is also concerned with the PRC’s Civil-Military Fusion strategy, which coerces Chinese companies to share technological innovation with the Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). This strategy “decreases our confidence in the ability to ensure that U.S. technologies exported to PRC will be used only for legitimate civilian uses,” said C.S. Eliot Kang, State Department Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.

To counter this strategy, the United States founded the International Technology Security and Innovation Fund, or ITSI, which is raising awareness of problematic PRC end users and disrupting illicit activities. The State Department “also manages other foreign assistance programs to strengthen regional regulatory systems, improve implementation and enforcement measures, and enhance research security among partners,” said Assistant Secretary Kang.

“The Indo-Pacific is particularly important; A region rich with technology innovators and critical suppliers,” said Assistant Secretary Kang. The United States is committed to supporting its partners in these sectors, while countering any country that tries to twist emerging technology for their own gain.