Digital Authoritarianism and Surveillance Technology Transfer in Southeast Asia

Background: The expanding export of surveillance and facial recognition technologies from China to several Southeast Asian states since 2021 has raised significant concerns regarding the diffusion of digital authoritarian governance models and their implications for civil liberties within recipient countries. Aims/objectives: This research examines how surveillance technology transfer arrangements influence domestic governance practices and the broader diplomatic relationships between technology-exporting and recipient states. Method: A qualitative analysis was conducted using procurement records, human rights organization reports, and interviews with digital rights advocates and policy researchers across three Southeast Asian case countries between 2022 and 2024. Results: Findings indicate that surveillance technology adoption correlated with measurable expansion of state monitoring capacity over civil society and political opposition, often justified domestically through public security and counterterrorism framing. Technology transfer agreements frequently included training and maintenance components that deepened long-term technical dependency on exporting states. Conclusion: The study concludes that surveillance technology diplomacy represents an underexamined dimension of authoritarian influence diffusion that complicates traditional democracy promotion frameworks. International civil society organizations and democratic governments are encouraged to develop coordinated due diligence standards for technology transfer agreements that account for human rights implications in recipient governance contexts and long-term institutional dependency patterns shaping domestic political development.

Keywords: digital authoritarianism, surveillance technology, Southeast Asia, technology transfer, human rights diplomacy