No, not everybody. Just everybody in all the countries subscribing to its Great Firewall–enabling Internet service.
ASPI’s The Strategist reports that the first satellites of China’s “ambitious G60 mega-constellation are in orbit in preparation for offering global satellite internet services—and we should worry about how this will help Beijing export its model of digital authoritarianism around the world” (“China may be putting the Great Firewall into orbit,” August 26, 2024.
If and when all the satellites are in place and all the technology is working properly, China plans to export its digital central planning to the countries which like that sort of thing, which are many. China hopes to achieve regional coverage by 2025, global coverage by 2027.
China is not only securing its position in the satellite internet market but laying the groundwork for expanding its digital governance model far beyond its borders.
Central to China’s ambition is the concept of cyber sovereignty—the notion that each nation has the right to govern its digital domain. In practice, China has used this principle to build a heavily censored surveillance system supporting the Chinese Communist Party’s power, widely condemned for violating human rights.
China’s satellite internet services would enable other governments to adopt similar practices, as the nature of satellite internet makes it susceptible to state control.
The more centralized setup of satellite internet enables “service providers and authorities [to] more easily monitor, block and filter content.” Country governments that subscribe to China’s satellite Internet would be able to readily emulate the massive surveillance and censorship imposed by China’s Great Firewall.
Another benefit, for China, is that its satellite system “may also make countries more vulnerable to cyber espionage by the Chinese government….” As well as to cyber hackers.
If all goes as China plans, “the world may witness the rise of a new digital Iron Curtain extending from space, dividing the free flow of information and imposing state control on a global scale.”
