Kidnapping, trafficking and gang violence: Inside China’s quest to become an AI superpower

The Belt and Road Initative has brought an unprecedented influx of Chinese investment to the sleepy town of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. But, as Brian McGleenon discovers, with great capital comes even greater control

Tuesday 14 April 2020 14:19 BST
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Money from China to build ‘the New Macau’ has led to deterioration in the quality of lives of local Cambodians
Money from China to build ‘the New Macau’ has led to deterioration in the quality of lives of local Cambodians

Ten Chinese men stormed into the Sihanoukville massage parlour and dragged 30-year-old Chanlina into a van waiting outside. Her screams alerted a nearby group of Cambodian tuk-tuk drivers, who approached the men and ordered them to release the Cambodian woman. Suddenly, they were surrounded by a hostile mob rushing out from an adjoining casino, armed with clubs, swords and knives. The ensuing battle was one-sided; several Cambodians suffered severe injuries.

The dark side of President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy endeavour, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has turned the once sleepy Cambodian fishing port of Sihanoukville into “New Macau”; the casino-lined streets now green with greed and red with violence. The city is a magnet for Chinese investors and migrant workers, a consequence of Beijing’s desperation to rid itself of spare industrial capacity, foreign currency reserves and a restless underemployed domestic workforce.

But moving at stealth behind the billions of dollars of concrete infrastructure lies “the digital silk road” – China’s developing web of surveillance and data gathering with its core at 135 Fuyou Street Beijing, under the watchful eye of the central intelligence agency United Work Front. If China is to realise its goal of becoming the world’s artificial intelligence superpower by 2030 then data is its most important resource, and its strategy in Sihanoukville is an integral component of achieving that dream.

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