O comprometimento asiático com o desenvolvimento cibernético da região e a utilização sínica do ciberespaço como extensão de sua estratégia tradicional

Abstract

The Asian presence is constant in cyber conflicts and theses countries are appearing as victims or alleged perpetrators. The high rate of participation in such models of war, added to the fact that countries like Russia, China, India, Japan, Pakistan and the Koreas are considered by the Pentagon as possessor of a cyber-army makes feasible the possibility of strong involvement and Asian commitment to the development of cyber capabilities in the region. Despite the strong technological gap between the states of the Asian Pacific, common threats fostered cooperation and united the continent in search for cybersecurity in the region. Therefore, this master's thesis aims to show the Asian commitment to the regional cyber development and the Chinese use of cyberspace as an extension of its national strategic thinking. The methodology is qualitative, with the case study method applied to China. This academic work is organized in three chapters, plus introduction and closing remarks. The first chapter has concepts and definitions we need to understand the discussions surrounding cyber terms. The second chapter sets out some of the cyber conflicts with Asian participation and highlights three Asian organizations working in pursuit of regional cybersecurity. The third chapter expresses the Chinese perception of cyber warfare, explains the use of cyberspace as a strategic tool for its military and economic development, and reveals their actions in order to prepare for the Cyber Age. The main result of this work has been that the Asian Pacific region is gradually getting involved in cyber conflicts and committing to cooperation for a common cyber security – including through the development of measuring tools for the cyber maturity – and that China sees in cyber warfare the possibility to block out impositions by militarily stronger powers and, through technology transfer, to achieve a military level similar to that of the great powers.