Good morning. We’re covering the high-tech arsenal used in Myanmar’s crackdown, China’s new digital currency and the ugly divorce between Britain and the E.U. | |  By Melina Delkic | | | A planclothes police officer taking a photo of journalist and protesters in Yangon. The New York Times | | | Many of the products were purchased from Western countries during Myanmar’s five years of civilian-military rule that ended with the coup on Feb. 1. Some of the tech helped people in Myanmar go online, and other systems like spyware were portrayed as integral to law enforcement. But now, critics say the armed forces used the facade of democracy to justify the sensitive cybersecurity and defense purchases. | | | Some of these technologies are being deployed by the military to target opponents. Documents show that the security forces have triangulated between their critics’ social media posts and the addresses of their internet hookups to find where they live. | | | Proof: Government budget documents viewed by The New York Times catalog millions spent in recent years on technology that can mine phones and computers, track people’s live locations and listen in on their conversations. | | | Latest in the trial: New charges were brought against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader who was deposed in the coup, on Monday. She now faces up to nine years in prison. U Win Myint, the deposed president who also appeared in court, faces up to five years. The hearing was held behind closed doors, and a lawyer for Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said he was blocked from attending. | | | A sign for China’s new digital currency eCNY. Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times | | | Testing of the eCNY began last year in four cities and was recently expanded to bigger cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. The government has not said if and when it will roll out the eCNY nationwide, but several officials have said it could be ready for tourists at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. | | | Effect: No other major power is as far along as China with a homegrown digital currency. The move could make it easier for the government to track financial transactions. | | | Quotable: “If I cannot buy you a coffee without the government knowing about it, I do worry about what this could mean,” said the former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. | | | Related: A study by a company that monitors the use of the internet by states shows that, as Chinese and Indian troops clashed at the border last year, Chinese malware flowed into the Indian electrical grid. The findings lend weight to the idea that a broad Chinese cyber-campaign may have been behind a major blackout in Mumbai in October. | | | The Sinovac vaccine arriving in Manila on Sunday. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images | | | The Philippines began its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Monday with the government struggling to reassure a population wary of foreign-made vaccines. Some 600,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine arrived on Sunday. | | | President Rodrigo Duterte urged the public to get vaccinated, telling Filipinos to “please set your fears aside.” Regulators who issued emergency-use authorization for the vaccine recommended that it not be administered to health workers or people age 60 and older, citing uncertainty over its efficacy rate among those groups. | | | Recent surveys have shown that almost half of Filipinos are unwilling to receive any coronavirus vaccine because of safety concerns. The reluctance may also stem from a vaccine scare during a dengue immunization program in 2017, as well as distrust of China-made vaccines. | | | Context: The Philippines has had one of the worst outbreaks in Southeast Asia. The government aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its 100 million residents this year. It will receive the Pfizer doses later this year, and the AstraZeneca shots soon. | | | Peter Morrison/Associated Press | | | As trade disputes pile up, Britain and the European Union have fallen out politically and diplomatically with a speed and a bitterness that surprised even pessimists about the relationship. | | | Our correspondent looked at how tensions have flared in every arena since a new trade agreement formalized Brexit on Jan. 1. Vaccines, shellfish and basic groceries have been caught in the fray. Above, a freight truck at a port in Northern Ireland. | | | Nicolas Sarkozy: The former French president was found guilty and sentenced to jail on Monday on charges of corruption and influence peddling. He received a sentence of at least one year but announced he would appeal. It is only the second time in modern French history that a former president has been convicted of a crime. | | | Hong Kong protests: Hundreds of people assembled outside a court where 47 prominent pro-democracy politicians and activists were being arraigned on Monday. Such demonstrations have become rare in Hong Kong after the city enacted coronavirus restrictions and Beijing imposed a harsh national security law. | | | Aleksei Navalny: The Russian opposition politician will serve his prison sentence in a notoriously harsh penal colony in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow, Russian news outlets reported. One former prisoner said “your personality deforms” from the abusive treatment. | | | Snapshot: Above, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on a split-screen as they hosted the 2021 Golden Globes from a distance, on opposite U.S. coasts. The awards show, tailored for the pandemic, was threatened by some tech glitches. Chloé Zhao became the first Asian woman to win the award for best director, for “Nomadland.” | | | Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Wilson. | | | Cook: This simple recipe for a spicy beef stir-fry was adapted from Soei, a family-run restaurant in Bangkok. | | | Read: Long-awaited novels from Kazuo Ishiguro, Imbolo Mbue and Viet Thanh Nguyen are among the 16 new books to watch for in March. | | | Do: Spring fashion is taking classic suiting, casual knits and sportswear to create a fresh, unfussy approach to dressing. Have a look at the relaxed new look. | | | China’s government commands an elaborate system that blocks foreign websites, contorts online conversations and punishes people for straying. Paul Mozur, who has written about technology and politics in China, spoke to our On Tech newsletter about “the Great Firewall” and how it compares to other countries’ efforts at internet control. | | | Explain China’s system of internet control. | | | It’s a combination of blocking just about any foreign website you can think of and providing an information environment that reinforces what China’s government and the Chinese Communist Party say about the world. | | | The controls are comprehensive. A huge government bureaucracy monitors online activity, and an army of volunteers report content to be censored and help spread positive messages about government initiatives. Companies are tasked with pulling material off the internet and engineering teams are dispatched to build artificial intelligence tools to help. Contractors provide the manpower for industrial scale censorship. | | | Yes. It comes at the cost of the government’s energy and money and the permanent anger of a segment of the population, but it’s extremely effective in shaping what many think. | | | Most people don’t have time to escape the information environment they live in, so it informs their outlook on the world — especially during crises. | | | The fear is that China will make the technology and techniques of its internet manipulation system readily adaptable by other autocratic countries. Myanmar is important to watch because if the generals control the internet without decimating the economy, it may become a model for other authoritarian regimes. | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Melina | | Thank you
Carole Landry helped write this briefing. Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
