Joint-Report Datenna & HCSS “Protecting European AI-Related Innovations: Preventing Their Use in China’s Military Advancements”

In the newly released report, “Protecting European AI-Related Innovations: Preventing Their Use in China’s Military Advancements,” Datenna partnered with The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) to investigate the risks China’s military-civil fusion strategy poses to European AI innovations. Commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence, the project provides actionable insights to address technology transfer concerns.

China’s rapid military modernization and ambition to lead in AI-driven technologies have raised global concerns, particularly due to its explicit goal of self-sufficiency in AI, with significant implications for the military domain. These advancements, combined with a shifting US-China military power balance in the Indo-Pacific favoring China, could have profound consequences for global security and economic stability. The EU and East Asia are deeply intertwined in their reliance on U.S. military power for security, while Europe depends on East Asia’s manufacturing dominance. In response, the U.S. and its allies have introduced stricter unilateral and plurilateral policies on export controls, foreign direct investment (FDI) screening, and knowledge security.

However, access to data and a comprehensive understanding of the core technologies driving China’s AI-enabled military advancements remain limited. To address this gap, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and Datenna have launched a collaborative research project.

Datenna is proud to contribute a comprehensive data-driven analysis of China’s industrial and academic landscape, consisting of over 45 million Chinese entities. Complementing HCSS’s investigations into AI-enabling technologies, the unique collaboration provides insights for policymakers to safeguard European innovations and mitigate risks of unintended contributions to China’s military advancements.