China has built a surveillance state that has increasingly incorporated AI-enabled technologies. Their use during the COVID-19 pandemic has softened the image of China’s surveillance system, presenting unique challenges to preventing the spread of such technologies around the globe. This policy brief outlines core actions the United States and its allies can take to combat the spread of surveillance systems that threaten basic human rights.

The United States has long used export controls to prevent the proliferation of advanced semiconductors and the inputs necessary to produce them. With Beijing building up its own chipmaking industry, the United States has begun tightening restrictions on exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. This brief provides an overview of U.S. semiconductor export control policies and analyzes the impacts of those policies on U.S.-China trade.

Foretell was CSET's crowd forecasting pilot project focused on technology and security policy. It connected historical and forecast data on near-term events with the big-picture questions that are most relevant to policymakers. In January 2022, Foretell became part of a larger forecasting program to support U.S. government policy decisions called INFER, which is run by the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security at the University of Maryland and Cultivate Labs. This issue brief used recent forecast data to illustrate Foretell’s methodology.

CSET Senior Fellow Melissa Flagg spoke with National Journal about the White House's National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies. Releasing a high-level document is wise, said Dr. Flagg, but doing so just before an election may lessen its effect.

See our original translation of a speech that Xi delivered to a meeting of academics in 2020 that he convened to solicit input for China’s upcoming 14th Five-Year Plan.

CSET's Remco Zwetsloot, along with Jacob Feldgoise, provided a detailed analysis of Chinese students in the United States by field of study and degree level. Axios highlighted the authors' work in the article below.

Plus: CA firefighters use AI, Rep. McCaul introduces export control bill and State Department issues guidance on surveillance technology

In recent years, concern has grown about the risks of Chinese nationals studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects at U.S. universities. This data brief estimates the number of Chinese students in the United States in detail, according to their fields of study and degree level. Among its findings: Chinese nationals comprise 16 percent of all graduate STEM students and 2 percent of undergraduate STEM students, lower proportions than were previously suggested in U.S. government reports.

China’s surge in artificial intelligence development has been fueled, in large part, by advances in computer vision, the AI subdomain that makes powerful facial recognition technologies possible. This data brief compares U.S. and Chinese computer vision patent data to illustrate the different approaches each country takes to AI development.

Establishing a new open-source National Science and Technology Analysis Center