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Huawei Knowledge Transfer in Africa: Corporate Communication and Users’ Responses on Social Networks

Stefano Calzati

Global Media and Communication, volume 19, issue 1 (2023), pp. 77-99

"This article focuses on the launch by the Chinese company Huawei of ICT academies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Kenya especially. Existing literature shows contrasting findings concerning the impact of such formation and recruitment centres. Through high-level thematic and sentiment analyses, th ... more

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‘Data Sovereignty’ or ‘Data Colonialism’? Exploring the Chinese Involvement in Africa’s ICTs: A Document Review on Kenya

Stefano Calzati

Journal of Contemporary African Studies, volume 40, issue 2 (2022), pp. 270-285

"Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become a crucial sector of China–Africa relations. As scholars have noted, Africa’s 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) risks transforming into a new ‘scramble’ with foreign actors harnessing Africa’s data. The present article explores th ... more

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The Digital Silk Road: Perspectives from Affected Countries

Rogier Creemers (ed.)

Leiden: Leiden Asia Centre (2021), 54 pp.

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Digital Silk Road in Central Asia: Present and Future

Nargis Kassenova, Brendan Duprey et al.

Davis Center for Russian Eurasian Studies (2021), xi, 119 pp.

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Connecting Into the Social Sustainability Effects of Infrastructure Through China’s Digital Silk Road: Issues, Indices, and Indications

Marc F. Blanchard, Bas Hooijmaaijers

Sustainability, volume 13, issue 22: e12739 (2021), 24 pp.

"There is a heated debate about the social-sustainability implications of infrastructure. We engage this debate by delving into China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR), an important component of China’s infrastructure-centric Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Optimists and pessimists have offered strong v ... more

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China’s Digital Silk Road in Africa and the Future of Internet Governance

Henry Tugendhat, Julia Voo

Washington, DC: China Africa Research Initiative (CARI);Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) (2021), 4 pp.

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The Digital Silk Road: China's Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future

Jonathan E. Hillman

New York, NY: Harper Business (2021), xiv, 351 pp.

"China is wiring the world, and, in doing so, rewriting the global order. As things stand, the rest of the world still has a choice. But the battle for tomorrow will require America and its allies to take daring risks in uncertain political terrain. Unchecked, China will reshape global flows of data ... more

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Assessing China’s Digital Silk Road: Huawei’s Engagement in Nigeria

Nils Hungerland, Kenddrick Chan

LSE Ideas, Digital IR Project (2021), 18 pp.

"The role of information technology in today’s society has made digital infrastructure a critical aspect of geopolitics. Although the private sector has traditionally led such developments, there is increasing evidence that countries are now slowly getting involved. This paper argues that as part ... more

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China’s 'Digital Silk Road' Enters the Western Balkans

Stefan Vladisavljev

Association for International Affairs (AMO) (2021), 30 pp.

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The Huawei Model: The Rise of China's Technology Giant

Yun Wen

Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press (2020), x, 239 pp.

"In 2019, the United States' trade war with China expanded to blacklist the Chinese tech titan Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The resulting attention showed the information and communications technology (ICT) firm entwined with China's political-economic transformation. But the question remained: why ... more

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ICT Aid Flows from China to African Countries: A Communication Network Perspective

Rong Wang, François Bar, Yu Hong

International Journal of Communication, volume 14 (2020), pp. 1-25

"The challenge in evaluating China’s foreign aid has always been the unavailability of reliable data sets. This study constitutes the first analysis of the AidData data set from a communication network perspective. It examines China’s development aid to Africa in the ICT sector from 2000 to 2014 ... more

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The Digital Silk Road: Expanding China’s Digital Footprint

Eurasia Group (2020), 12 pp.

"First unveiled in 2015, the Digital Silk Road (DSR) component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted more political and commercial attention as technology-related tensions between the US and China have risen. Whereas large-scale traditional infrastructure projects have so far bee ... more

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China’s Digital Silk Road: Strategic Technological Competition and Exporting Political Illiberalism

Clayton Cheney

Pacific Forum (2019), iv, 23 pp.

"The Digital Silk Road is the component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative that aims to establish China as the global technological superpower. While the Belt and Road Initiative is generally understood to be a foreign policy initiative, it is important to view the Digital Silk Road as both a for ... eign and domestically focused aspect of the initiative. The first step to analyzing this component of the Belt and Road Initiative is to create a conceptual roadmap to understand the components of the Digital Silk Road. This paper argues that it comprises four interrelated, technologically focused initiatives. First, China is investing abroad in digital infrastructure, including next generation cellular networks, fiberoptic cables and data centers. Second, it contains a domestic focus on developing advanced technologies that will be essential to global economic and military power. These advanced technologies include satellite navigation systems, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Third, because China recognizes the importance of economic interdependence to international influence, the Digital Silk Road promotes e-commerce through digital free trade zones. Last, digital diplomacy and governance, including through multilateral institutions, are key to China creating its ideal international digital environment. After outlining a broad conceptual map of the Digital Silk Road, this paper focuses on how China’s investment in digital infrastructure and the strategic technological competition between China and the United States will shape the international orders in the Asia-Pacific region and globally. It argues that China perceives technological advancement as the sphere in which it can most adequately challenge the United States’ global power without creating direct confrontation, including possible military confrontation. Second, the United States seeks to constrain the Digital Silk Road and China’s technological ascendancy by presenting Chinese technology corporations as posing an unacceptable risk to international security. Third, China does not want to replace the current international order that has persisted since the end of the Second World War. Rather, it would like to maintain the liberal economic order that has permitted its economic rise and export its form of digital authoritarianism to create an illiberal political international order. Finally, through investing in data centers and pursuing data localization policies, China aims to achieve strategic geopolitical objectives by projecting sharp power abroad, which will be facilitated by big data." (Executive Summary) more

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Digitale Brücke oder digitale Kluft? Chancen und Herausforderungen für Wirtschaft und Handel durch IKT in Subsahara Afrika

Bettina Merlin, Burkhard Vielhaber, Dirk Geilen

Bonn: Büro für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung beim Deutschen Bundestag (TAB) (2006), 116 pp.

"Der „Digital Divide“ in Subsahara Afrika ist groß, nicht zuletzt wegen der (halb-)staatlichen Monopolgesellschaften, welche das Kommunikationsfestnetz in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten mehr schlecht verwaltet als gut bewirtschaftet haben und bis heute nur ca. 1,6% der Bevölkerung in Subsahara Af ... more