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Digital Asia links: Battle of the US State visits — President Xi Jinping vs. Prime Minister Modi

Digital Asia links: Battle of the US State visits — President Xi Jinping vs. Prime Minister Modi

The Asia Pacific is the most dynamic digital landscape in the world, home to the fastest adopters of new technologies and the largest concentration of mobile and social media users. An escalation in online activism, changing cyber dynamics, developments in digital diplomacy and the exploitation of big data are shaping the region's engagement with the world.

  • As part of his US visit, China's President Xi Jinping has been in Seattle this week holding meetings with tech CEOs. The NYT has daily updates and the WSJ lists which tech leaders Xi met with and why.
  • Is China's relationship with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates more important than with President Obama? 
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon be in Silicon Valley to bolster's India's tech credentials as a part of his US visit. He will dine with top tech CEOs and address a rally for 18,000 members of the Indian diaspora. 
  • What will Google (and others) try to get out of Modi? Could his visit to Silicon Valley help reverse India's tech brain drain?
  • Digital diplomacy supporting Xi's visit includes a Facebook page, hashtag #XiUSAVisit, 24-hour CCTV YouTube broadcasting and a tie up with US newspapers to publish a 48-page China Daily special insert (online and print).
  • The Global Times reports that Xi's US visit has attracted unprecedented attention from the Chinese public on social media.
  • Not to be outdone, Modi will re-use the hashtag #ModIinUSA and his digital diplomacy will centre on a Townhall Q&A at Facebook's headquarters with CEO Mark Zuckerberg on 27 September.
  • The Q&A will stream live via Modi's Facebook page, but if you are not one of his 30 million friends you can also submit questions via his website or mobile app.
  • Zuckerberg has already met with Xi this week, speaking with him entirely in Chinese.
  • Human Rights Watch has called on Silicon Valley to 

    use 'every lever they have to resist China’s quest for a controlled Internet'.

  • A day before Xi's arrival in Washington, the US Government revised the number of federal employee fingerprints stolen during the OPM cyber attack (widely attributed to China) from 1.1 million to 5.6 million.
  • In an interview with Caixin, Rupert Murdoch said he believed cybersecurity issues between the countries were 'exaggerated'. Nevertheless, the expected US-China cyber pact has not been finalised.
  • Modi will also visit Googleplex this week to oversee a hackathon with 150 Indian programmers aiming to produce software and apps for Modi's Digital India initiative. In an advance welcome, new CEO Sundar Pichai:




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