Shaping the Future of Africa-china Engagement

Abstract

Chinese information communication technology (ICT) multinational corporations (MNCs) have built the backbone infrastructure used by millions of internet users across Africa and the world (Cisse, 2012; Oreglia, 2012; Gagliardone, 2019). The global presence of Chinese tech firms is set to increase with the Digital Silk Road (DSR), the digital component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Introduced in 2015 by an official Chinese white paper, the DSR operates under a complex web of nonbinding soft law instruments such as Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) and policy documents. Like the BRI, the DSR has largely been an umbrella term for virtually any telecommunications or data-related business operation, or product sold by China-based tech firms (Greene and Triolo, 2019). With dozens of BRI projects put on hold due to the logistical disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the DSR has gained greater importance in Beijing’s global projections...