April 18, 2018
China’s Strategic Ambiguity and Shifting Approach to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
On April 13, China’s delegation to United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systemsannounced the “desire to negotiate and conclude” a new protocol for the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons “to ban the use of fully autonomous lethal weapons systems.” According to the aptly named Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the delegation “stressed that [the ban] is limited to use only.” The same day, the Chinese air force released details on an upcoming challenge intended to evaluate advances in fully autonomous swarms of drones, which will also explore new concepts for future intelligent-swarm combat.
The juxtaposition of these announcements illustrates China’s apparent diplomatic commitment to limit the use of “fully autonomous lethal weapons systems” is unlikely to stop Beijing from building its own.
Read the full article at Lawfare
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