The Digital Silk Road

The Digital Silk Road: China’s Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future. Jonathan E. Hillman. New York, NY: Harper Business, 2021.

Some of the most alarming anecdotes documented in the book are those in which customers and partners of Chinese tech companies believe they are engaged in above-board business transactions, when in reality they are being set up to be robbed and exploited. Examples abound. One of the Netherlands’ largest mobile phone providers—using Huawei switches—found that by 2010 Chinese intelligence could listen in on all calls carried by the service including those of the prime minister. Additionally they learned that Chinese authorities could see all numbers monitored by Dutch police and security services. The African Union (AU) had its headquarters financed and built by the PRC, and in 2018 it was discovered that for the previous five years the data from its servers was being sent nightly to China. In 2020, the African Union learned that its surveillance cameras were sending their footage there as well. Nortel Networks Corporation—once Canada’s largest and wealthiest company—went bankrupt after partnering with and then being victimized by its Chinese telecom partners. The Canadian ministry of defense purchased the defunct headquarters for $200 million, only to find it extensively penetrated with spy-gear. After spending an additional $790 million in remediation efforts it was still unable to certify the space as secure.

Hillman demonstrates the disconnect between American government policy and private industry’s goals. He makes a convincing case for the importance of government intervention in markets as part of a national security policy for critical topics such as rural broadband, given private industry’s lack of profit incentive to do so.

Where the book is perhaps less persuasive is in the final section, in which it proposes greater Western collaboration and cohesion. My enjoyment in reading The Digital Silk Road, was enhanced by serendipitously finding it in the small English-language section of a European bookstore. Unfortunately, the European Union and major economies such as Germany and France have their own stakeholders, and appear to be seeking their own path rather than siding too closely with the United States. The early November 2022 visit to Beijing of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the heads of 12 major companies (including Siemens, BASF, and Volkswagen) demonstrates Berlin’s interest in ever greater business ties with the People’s Republic.

Hillman’s work deserves to be discovered and read by a wide audience. Throughout the book, he documents how the Digital Silk Road poses a threat not only to U.S. economic interests, but potentially to wider national security interests as well. As an example, China’s undersea cable system, and access to the trunk-line landing stations, potentially provides them access to U.S. fiber-optic cables carrying trans-continental data, which may introduce questions of the reliability and security of U.S. communications. Similarly, the work focuses on how China intends for the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) to compete to replace the lead position occupied by the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). In a war, BDS could provide the Chinese military with an alternative method to employ precision guided weapons, while at the same time using their well-known counter-space systems to blind U.S. GPS. This eye-opening and disturbing book is a welcome addition to the literature on the rising multi-spectrum threat posed by China, and deserves attention by the military, diplomats, and anyone considering doing business with entities engaged in China’s Digital Silk Road.

Christopher D. Booth is a national security professional, served on active duty as a U.S. Army armor and cavalry officer, and was a fellow in the General Robert H. Barrow Fellowship for Strategic Competition and the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Creativity. He is a distinguished graduate of Command and Staff College at Marine Corps University, and graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School and the College of William and Mary. The views expressed are the author’s and do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

This article appeared originally at Strategy Bridge.

[1] Josh Rogin, “NSA Chief: Cybercrime constitutes the ‘greatest transfer of wealth in history,’” Foreign Policy, https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/07/09/nsa-chief-cybercrime-constitutes-the-greatest-transfer-of-wealth-in-history/.