11. The (Geo)Politics of standardisation
Standards support innovation, economic growth, competitiveness, facilitate international trade and help protect consumer rights, safeguard critical infrastructures, and national security. As standards have far-reaching socio-economic and (geo)political implications impacting the balance of power between competing businesses and/or national interests, they should be considered when drawing up national policy objectives.
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Video: Digital standards, China, and geopolitics: What is at stake?
China has recently shown increased participation in standard developing organisations (SDOs), which can be understood as a natural consequence of the country’s rapid technological development, and an indication that Chinese actors prefer to engage in organisations that underpin international order.
On the one hand, there is hope that Chinese involvement may strengthen the adoption of international standards within China. On the other hand, there are growing concerns that China’s increased participation may be guided by goals of national political and economic projection – of the state and its private actors – that would trump goals of technical efficiency.
Two specific proposals put forward by Chinese actors at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that have attracted significant media attention will be covered in our discussion: a proposal for ITU-T to take up work on designing a new protocol (the ‘New IP’ proposal) and a proposal for standardising facial recognition systems in visual surveillance.
On 2 February 2022, the European Commission launched the EU Strategy on Standardization – Setting global standards in support of a resilient, green and digital EU single market. The Strategy aims to strengthen the EU’s global competitiveness, to enable a resilient, green and digital economy, and to enshrine democratic values in technology applications.
‘Technical standards are of strategic importance. Europe’s technological sovereignty, ability to reduce dependencies and protection of EU values will rely on our ability to be a global standard-setter’ (Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market).
The strategy has five key sets of actions: anticipate, prioritise and address standardisation needs in the strategic areas, improve the governance and integrity of the European standardisation system, enhance European leadership in global standards, support innovation, and enable the next generation of standardisation experts.
The strategy is seen as a response to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (European Chamber) report The Shape of Things to Come: The Race to Control Technical Standardisation, published in December 2021. The report identifies technical standard setting as a battleground on which states are fighting to gain dominance in strategic technologies, such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and new electric vehicles.