US-China Tech Race: brave new world
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Tech Tonic, how a mysterious death in Belgrade prompted Serbia to embrace Chinese surveillance technology, raising concerns among Serbian human rights and privacy activists. They’ve been fighting back against the Serbian government’s use of Huawei facial recognition tech in public spaces. But Serbia is just one of many countries around the world that’s adopted this cutting-edge Chinese mass monitoring equipment. What does it tell us about the spread of Chinese influence around the world?
Presented by James Kynge, this episode features interviews with Danilo Krivokapic (director, Share Foundation), Andrej Petrovski (director of tech, Share Foundation), Stefan Vladisavljev (programme co-ordinator, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence), Wang Huiyao (director, Beijing Center for Globalisation) and Wawa Wang (director, Just Finance).
Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Special thanks to Marton Dunai and Bojan Radic. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read James Kynge, Valerie Hopkins, Helen Warrell and Kathrin Hille’s previous reporting on Chinese surveillance tech in the Balkans: https://www.ft.com/content/76fdac7c-7076-47a4-bcb0-7e75af0aadab
News clips credits: PBS, CNBC, CGNT, DW, Moconomy, BBC
Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the FT’s technology team at ft.com/technology
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.3 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:12.4 | Rancos Bridge connects the old city and the new city in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. |
| 0:19.2 | And in 2014, that bridge became the scene of an accident |
| 0:23.7 | that would dramatically alter the course of Serbia's foreign policy. |
| 0:29.4 | Over there where you can see that elevator somewhere there, the incident happened. |
| 0:35.2 | That's Danilo Krivokapic, director at Share Foundation, a human rights and privacy group. |
| 0:42.2 | Rancos Bridge is surrounded by brutalist tower blocks and sprawling views of the Serbian capital. |
| 0:49.2 | And in the summer of 2014, in the dead of night, the bridge was the site of an infamous hit and run. |
| 0:57.9 | Well, this was actually a pretty sad case, you know. |
| 1:01.8 | There was the car accident during the night, the young man died. |
| 1:07.0 | And actually, for days, even weeks, police didn't care a lot about this. |
| 1:13.1 | Rancos Bridge is a prominent, well-trafficked route into the capital. |
| 1:18.2 | But the death of 21-year-old Luca Giovanović went mysteriously unsolved. |
| 1:24.5 | And only after his father stood on the bridge for days with the sign, |
| 1:29.8 | police explained what happened to my son, police started investigating, |
| 1:33.5 | and then it became the biggest case in the country. |
| 1:37.8 | There was grainy CCTV footage of the accident, but the police had little to go on. |
| 1:43.5 | Luca's father wouldn't give up, though. |
| 1:45.7 | Day after day, he staged a silent protest on the bridge. |
| 1:49.8 | The story became a tabloid fixture. |
| 1:52.7 | The car that had struck Luca was a mini-countryman, |
... |
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