The original “Sputnik moment” was in 1957. The Soviet Union demonstrated technological superiority to the US by launching the first satellite,the Sputnik. This so alarmed the US that it entered the “space race” and created two new government agencies in response – NASA and the Advanced Research Projects Agency,which would later build the foundation of what is now known as the internet.
A hypersonic glide vehicle is launched into space by a rocket and then glides at five times the speed of sound as it orbits the earth. It can carry a missile,conventional or nuclear,which is aimed at a target on the ground. Its real potency is its evasiveness. It can manoeuvre in flight.
Such capability would “provide significant challenges to my NORAD capability to provide threat warning and attack assessment”,said the head of North American Aerospace Defence Command,General Glen VanHerck.
China’s authorities denied testing a hypersonic glide vehicle when London’sFinancial Times first reported the news in October. The newspaper cited unnamed US intelligence sources for the information.
One intriguing twist is that,as theFT’sDemetri Sevastopulo wrote:“Two of the people familiar with the Chinese test said the weapon could,in theory,fly over the South Pole. That would pose a big challenge for the US military because its missiles defence systems are focused on the northern polar route.”
The head of US Strategic Command,Admiral Charles Richard,who oversees America’s nuclear forces,said that the capability meant China could “now execute any possible nuclear employment strategy”.
Now,on the weekend,we were told to be alert for another breakthrough on a different frontier. The head of British signals intelligence,GCHQ director Sir Jeremy Fleming,sounded the alarm that China’s digital currency could be a new instrument for surveillance and control internationally.
Beijing’s new digital yuan or digital renminbi is in a pilot phase,with 140 million people and businesses so far signed up to use it.
Fleming said that “if wrongly implemented,it gives a hostile state the ability to surveil transactions,” he said. And the ability “to be able to exercise control over what is conducted on those digital currencies”.
China’s authorities are using the Beijing Winter Olympics in February to promote the digital yuan. “China is taking every opportunity to project their digital currency,and their hope is that foreign visitors will use it in the same way as domestic visitors,” Fleming said.
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Beijing has so far handed out some $50 million equivalent in digital “red envelopes” to encourage people to adapt to the new form of currency. Some of the free money samples have had expiry dates to encourage early use.
While other nations are allowing the untrammelled expansion of private digital currencies – cryptocurrencies or virtual currencies – to coexist with official currencies issued by central banks,China has banned all digital currencies except for its official one.
It “allows China to expand its engagement with global trade partners and actively participate in reforming world economic governance”,according to Chinese Communist Party-owned media outlet CGTN.
Most countries,more than 120,count China as their major trading partner. This fact should allow Beijing to accelerate the uptake of its digital yuan as an alternate international payments system. It uses blockchain technology and transactions don’t require bank accounts or the internet.
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It also points out that “a digital renminbi stands by itself and does not need to use the US dollar settlement system. It is an essential part of China’s innovation and digital economy,which includes AI,big data,and 5G.”
China’s authorities have employed a wide range of technologies for surveillance and control of their people,including hundreds of millions of CCTV cameras,facial recognition systems,AI to predict citizens’ behaviour,a social credit system,and enforced downloading of surveilling apps.
It would be entirely consistent for Beijing to use its monopoly control of the digital yuan as another layer in its “techno authoritarianism” for use at home and abroad.
The seriousness of Beijing’s commitment to tech innovation and mastery inevitably means that more Sputnik moments are on the way. We’ll only know when it happens.
Peter Hartcher is international editor.
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