Global cyber arms race: How US-China tech warfare escalates digital colonialism through stolen tools and unchecked surveillance capitalism
Original framing: “The FBI has seized tools used by Chinese hackers for cyber operations, officials say - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
Marginalized communities—such as cybersecurity researchers in the Global South, whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, and activists targeted by state-sponsored surveillance—provide critical insights into the human cost of cyber warfare. For example, the *Citizen Lab* at the University of Toronto has documented how dissidents in China, Russia, and the Middle East are targeted with the same tools now seized by the FBI, yet their voices are absent from mainstream narratives. Similarly, *Black cybersecurity collectives* like *AfroLeaks* argue that cyber warfare is a tool of racialized surveillance, yet these perspectives are rarely centered in discussions of 'national security.' The omission of these voices reinforces the idea that cyber conflict is a state-centric issue rather than a systemic threat to global equity.
This incident is not merely a clash between two cyber powers but a symptom of a deeper crisis: the weaponization of digital infrastructure as a tool of neocolonial control, where states and corporations collaborate to monopolize surveillance capabilities while marginalizing those most affected.
The absence of Indigenous knowledge systems—such as Māori *kaitiakitanga* or African *Ubuntu*-based data governance—reveals how Western cybersecurity frameworks treat digital spaces as battlegrounds rather than commons, erasing alternative models of stewardship. Historical parallels, from Stuxnet to the Opium Wars, demonstrate that cyber warfare is the latest iteration of imperial power projection, where economic and military dominance is enforced through asymmetrical tools. The trickster lens exposes the absurdity of states claiming moral authority while weaponizing tools developed with corporate complicity, while future modeling warns of escalating risks if unchecked. To break this cycle, solutions must center digital sovereignty, demilitarize critical infrastructure, and amplify marginalized voices—shifting from reactive security to restorative justice in the digital realm.