Page 26 - The Economist Asia January 2018

The Economist January 27th 2018
26 China
2 want to use the data in pursuit of global Music booked. Netizens speculated that televi-
dominance in the business of AI. So they sion bosses had been ordered to yank him
have an incentive to collect as much data Rappers’ knuckles from the series. Shortly beforehand Chi-
as possible and support lax data-protec- na’s media regulator was reported to have
tion laws. On the other hand, consumers rapped circulated guidelines informing broadcast-
in China are demandingtighterprotection, ers that they should not feature hip-hop
while their counterparts in the West, music or give airtime to people with ques-
where the Chinese companiesare trying to tionable morals, undesirable ideologies or
expand their business, have even greater BEIJING (gasp) visible tattoos.
Agenre’s popularityworries officials
privacy concerns. Rap musicisnotnewto China. Its popu-
For the past year, companies have been N HIS bawdy rap song, “Christmas Eve”, larity has grown in fits and starts since the
debating how to strike the right balance. IWang Hao (pictured) switches from Chi- 1990s. In 2014 the country’s leader, Xi Jin-
Now, it seems, consumer pressure may be nese to English when praising his friends ping, said there wasa place in China forim-
winning out. FrankFan, a data-security ex- as “motherfucking dope”. Mr Wang’s fans ported art forms such as rap as longas they
pert, argues that recent events will prove a clearly think he is dope, too. In September conveyed “healthy and upbeat” messages.
turning point. “In the future,” he says, the musician (who uses the stage name PG In recent years rap-style delivery has even
“data-protection policies will determine One) was named as the joint winner of been adopted by the party in its propagan-
whether a company will succeed or not.” “Rap of China”, a hip-hop-themed talent da videos. “Extensive consultation, joint
Nie Zhengjun, Ant Financial’s chief pri- show on iQiyi, a popular video-streaming contribution and shared benefits” was a
vacyofficer(yes, theyhave one) claims that site. During its 12-episode run the contest catchy line in a partially rapped ditty re-
Chinese consumers are “no longer content racked up a whopping2.7bn views, turning leased last year in praise of China’s plans
with preventing information from being its contestants into household names. for state-led investment abroad, the Belt
used for fraudulent purposes…Now they This year, however, those revelling in and Road Initiative.
want control in protectingtheirprivacy.” their newfound fame are under fire. In De- Chinese rappers tend to avoid broach-
The question is how these shifts in con- cemberMrWangwasaccused ofhavingan ing sensitive political topics. Yet the au-
sumer attitudes and company behaviour affair with a married actress; in an ensuing thorities are clearly wary ofthe genre. Offi-
will affect the government, which is gath- online furore, the Communist Youth cials in Beijing are keen to promote
ering vast quantities of personal informa- League tweeted an attack on “Christmas Mandarin; they are not bigfans ofthe local
tion without the public’s consent. This in- Eve”, a three-year-old track that web users dialects that many rappers use. They also
cludes DNA data taken from millions of had dug out of Mr Wang’s back catalogue worry about the lewdness ofsome rap lyr-
people, including all inhabitants of the and that contained far coarser lyrics than ics—a pretext that was used for blacklisting
western province of Xinjiang. The govern- anythinghe had aired on the show, includ- 120 rap songs in 2015 (when members of
ment’s aim is to use the data to help it to ing a reference to drug-taking. All his re- one well-known group were slung into jail
strengthen social control. cords have since disappeared from music- for several days, apparently for being too
In 2017 the government launched an in- streaming services—while they are re- risqué). Despite his approval of sanitised
spection campaign examining the privacy viewed and revised, he says. Mr Wang cultural imports, Mr Xi is far keener on tra-
policies of ten internet firms. At least five apologised for the saltiness of his early ditional Chinese arts. Foreign pop idols are
were found to have improved data protec- work. He blamed it on the influence of finding it harder to get permission to per-
tion by making it easier for users to delete “blackmusic”. form in China. Justin Bieberand Katy Perry
personal information. This enabled the Meanwhile fortunes are also shifting are among the most famous to have been
government to boast about the security of for Mr Wang’s fellow winner, Zhou Yan, barred in recent months.
China’s data-protection laws and claim who goes by the name of GAI. Since find- But the party’s puritanism is at odds
that it was making personal information ingfame on the show, MrZhou had shown with the tastesofyoungChinese. Itis also a
safe from criminals. no inclination to upset prudish censors by headache fortelevision producers. The cre-
At the same time, however, the cyber- returning to his gangsta-rapper roots. But ators of “Rap of China” had promised a
security law required that copies ofall per- on January 19th he failed to appear in the second series. If officials persist in keeping
sonal data gathered by operators of “criti- second episode of “Singer”, a star-studded colourful characters off-camera, making a
cal information infrastructure” in main- variety show onto which he had been triumphant return will be hard. 7
land China must be stored there. This has
fuelled suspicions that the government
wants to be able to gain access to them, ei-
ther covertly or by putting pressure on
data-storage companies. At the end of Feb-
ruary, Apple will complywith the new law
by handing management of the data of
iCloud customers in China to a state-
owned company. (The American firm in-
sists that “no back doors will be created
into anyofoursystems” and thatitwill en-
sure “strongdata privacy”.)
In the long run, the public’s growing
concerns about privacy must be at odds
with the government’s efforts to create a
new form of surveillance state. But the
Communist Party shows no sign of con-
cern: itseemsto be able to have its cake and
eat it. It is tightening data-protection rules
forcompanies, while makingiteasier forit-
selfto grab more private information. 7 Hip-hop star calls music “black”