China’s technological advances raise security concerns for lawmakers, defense leaders

WASHINGTON (TND) — China’s cyber capabilities are drawing more focus from Congress, U.S. defense and intelligence officials and private businesses as Washington’s relationship with Beijing becomes more adversarial amid stiff economic competition and China’s efforts to expand its influence as a world power.

While there are lingering concerns about a military conflict with China over Taiwan, many of the battles the U.S. is trying to prepare for and prevent do not involve direct altercations that lead to military warfare.

Many of the recent U.S. initiatives are related to limiting China’s access to American-made technology that can be used to advance its military objections, protecting data from falling into the Chinese government’s hands and bolstering cyber defenses amid concerns about Beijing’s advancing capabilities.

The most recent high-profile example is a Congress-led effort to ban the popular video app TikTok over its parent company’s connections to Beijing. A bill passed the House with broad bipartisan margins and President Joe Biden has pledged to sign it if it passes the Senate, which is more uncertain with questions from lawmakers about targeting a specific company and if it will address the root of the issues with TikTok.

The root of the issue with TikTok is a Chinese law that could compel ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to give Americans’ data to China’ intelligence agencies or coerce the app to use its algorithm to sway public discourse. In addition to using its algorithm to create a profile of a user to feed them content they are more likely to stay on the app and watch, people can also opt into sharing more data with TikTok through allowing access to contacts or by simply divulging it in posts on the platform.

TikTok is the most well-known and prominent example of the risks lawmakers and intelligence experts say presents a risk to Americans’ data security, but there are other problems lingering.

Among them is China’s heavy investments and capabilities with blockchain technology. Blockchain is known for its connection to cryptocurrencies but has seen its uses expand with time to cloud-based storage and other applications.

China has invested…