Chinese emergency system in Serbia: Donation that is not free

 

As Vuk Vuksanović from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy told Radio Free Europe (RSE), this donation "is not free", because in this way, he states, the ground is being tested for Chinese technology companies.

 

The Chinese donation comes after the European Union financed a project to prepare for the introduction of the 112 system in Serbia, and the earlier cooperation between Serbia and China in the field of technology raises issues of transparency and security risks of using Chinese technology.

 

What did the Ministry of Internal Affairs say?

On September 28, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandar Vulin and Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Belgrade Chen Bo signed an agreement whereby China will donate the 112 system that unites emergency services to Serbia.

 

Vulin said that the signed agreement will enable the introduction of a single Serbian number 112 "which will unite all our services that help people when they need help, shorten the speed of response in these situations, and enable the location from which the call was made to be determined more precisely".

 

By the way, 112 is the number that is called for emergencies in all parts of the European Union and through it citizens can call all emergency services - police, ambulance or fire brigade.

 

Until now, Serbia has had a system of separate numbers, that is, there are different numbers for different emergency services.

 

Vulin said that this is "the largest single donation to the Ministry of Internal Affairs by the People's Republic of China", and that the value of the donation is 25.6 million euros.

 

Radio Free Europe (RSE) sent questions to the Ministry of Interior regarding this donation, among other things, what kind of technology is involved, which company will be engaged in the creation of this system and whether the introduction of this system will allow access to sensitive personal data of citizens. RSE also asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to submit the donation agreement.

 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs's response to RSE's inquiry was not received, nor was the response from the Chinese Embassy to which questions regarding this agreement were also addressed.

 

European project and Chinese donation

In the previous decade, the media in Serbia repeatedly wrote about the introduction of the single number 112 and the unification of emergency services in Serbia.

 

The 112 unique number system, is even mentioned in the Law on Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Management from 2018. In this law, the so-called "Service 112" is listed as one of the subjects of the system that should manage emergency situations.

 

The European Union financed the project from 2019-2021 with one million euros. which prepares for the introduction of the 112 system in Serbia, according to the website of the project "EU for an efficient 112 support system in the Republic of Serbia".

 

The project, among other things, envisages the analysis and assessment of shortcomings in the provision of emergency services to citizens, in the field of response to disasters, as well as the assessment of the technical specifications of the equipment for this system.

 

Until the end of the work on this text, RSE did not receive an answer from the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia how much the EU invested in the system of unifying emergency services 112 in Serbia, as well as whether the Chinese donation of equipment is disputed in the context of the EU's investment in the mentioned project.

 

What are the potential risks of using Chinese equipment?

"Serbia's cooperation in agreements of this type is disputed from several aspects", claims Ana Toskić Cvetinović, executive director of the Belgrade-based organization "Partners for Democratic Changes".

 

This organization has existed since 2008 and deals, among other things, with the rule of law, protection of human rights, protection of privacy and personal data.

Toskić Cvetinović reminds that non-transparency is one of the problems that has been present so far when it comes to cooperation between Serbia and China in terms of technology, and which in this case raises many questions.

"Who manages that equipment, who is responsible for the issue of data that can possibly be collected using that equipment are some of the questions," she states, adding that it is also unclear whether this donation was agreed upon in an earlier agreement with China and whether there is a subsequent one. step in such a project.

Vuk Vuksanović, a senior researcher at the non-governmental Belgrade Center for Security Policy, also believes that the lack of information opens up issues of a security nature.

"We don't know what the nature of this technology is and whether it allows the Chinese supplier to collect and analyze data," he says.

Vuksanović says that this question arises in view of the controversies surrounding the "Safe City" project, in the framework of which China provided Serbia with video surveillance equipment.

 

What was disputed in the procurement of Chinese equipment for video surveillance?

"We never managed to get an agreement between Serbia and the Huawei company, we managed to get some information from the the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the plans and number of cameras, as well as information that cameras are used, but no software for automatic facial recognition is used," says Ana Toskić from the organization "Partners for Democratic Changes".

 

She added that the content of the "Safe City" project itself is not known.

On February 3, 2017, Serbia, i.e. the Ministry of Internal Affairs, signed a strategic partnership agreement for the introduction of camera systems within the "Safe City" project with Huawei.

 

Cameras have been installed in hundreds of places in the capital of Serbia, and the "Safe City" project, within the framework of which they were purchased from Huawei, envisages more than 1,000 cameras in 800 locations in Belgrade.

 

The "Safe City" project enables, according to the Huawei specification, the recognition of citizens' faces, and cross-checking with photos that are in the possession of the MUP, and in this way the identification of citizens. This technology is considered controversial in the West from the point of view of human rights and citizens' privacy.

 

In September 2021, upon RSE's inquiry, the Ministry of Interior said that the system was still not in operation and that the public would be informed about it in a timely manner.

All information concerning the project with the company Huawei has been marked as "secret" by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The project of "smart cities" is a project of the Chinese government that is based on the widespread use of modern IT and telecommunication technologies for the detection, analysis and integration of all key information related to the functioning of a city.

According to a January 2020 report published on the website of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China reportedly has nearly 800 smart city pilot programs underway or planned.

Western countries and the United States criticize the project also because it uses invasive technologies from companies like Huawei.

By the way, Huawei is one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones and network equipment in the world.

The United States of America imposed sanctions on this company in 2019, with the explanation that it represents a security threat due to its ties to the Chinese government. It is suspected that this company provides China with access to the data of other countries.

 

Why is presence in Serbia important to China?

Police Minister Aleksandar Vulin said during the signing of the donation agreement on September 28 that "more important than money, this generous donation, is the continuation of cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Serbia, but also the continuation of cooperation between the two ministries of interior affairs."

 

Vulin also pointed out that Serbia and China "cooperate as friends, partners, from a position of full equality".

 

Vuk Vuksanović from the organization Belgrade Center for Security Policy says that China is still an important partner for the Serbian government, especially because it is a "source of technology and capital", and that China, on the other hand, has an interest in further paving the way for its technology in Serbia.

 

"China starts from the assumption that if it manages to conquer the market and take root in a country that is a candidate for membership in the European Union, after that it can expand to its neighbors in the Western Balkans, and later on to other larger markets in the European Union," says Vuksanović.

 

By the way, Serbia is part of the Chinese President Xi Jinping's "Belt and Road" Initiative, with the aim of connecting China with Europe and penetrating the West.

In 2021, China was the second largest foreign trade partner of Serbia. Of the five largest Serbian exporters last year, three companies are owned by Chinese investors, which achieved total exports of 1.9 billion euros, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said in August.

 

Because of its cooperation with China, Serbia came under the scrutiny of the European Union (EU), whose membership it aspires to, while warnings came from the United States of America (USA) to official Belgrade because of cooperation between Serbia and China in the field of defense.

 

By the way, Serbia also counts on China when it comes to the status of Kosovo, the former southern province of Serbia that declared independence in 2008. Officials in Serbia continue to refuse to recognize Kosovo as an independent state and block its membership in international organizations, in which Russia and China provide their greatest support.

 

On the other hand, Serbian officials have repeatedly reiterated their position that they support the "one China" policy. The "one China" principle recognizes Taiwan as part of China.

 

While China claims that the democratically governed Taiwan is its territory, the Taiwanese government rejects China's claims, stating that China has never ruled the island.