Category: Surveillance

Cameroon Goes All in on Chinese Safe Cities, but at What Cost?

In 2014, the Cameroonian government launched the “Cameroon Intelligent City Project,” where 70 Huawei-supplied CCTV cameras were installed across six localities. The project expanded through several phases, with some sources noting that the government hopes to install 24,000 cameras nationwide. By December 2025, government borrowing for these initiatives had ...

China Expanding Surveillance Hardware in South China Sea: Report

China has reportedly expanded its surveillance capacity in the South China Sea. A new report by the U.S. think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, used satellite images to track additions to three main Chinese facilities in the Spratly Islands.

Chinese Surveillance Ship Intercepted by Philippines in Disputed Waters

The Philippine Coast Guard intercepted what appears to be a Chinese intelligence vessel on Saturday that was accompanied by a pair of PLA Navy escort ships that were operating within the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone. The presence of the Chinese spy ship 

China’s $4.4 Billion Bet on Indonesia’s New Capital: A Strategic Utility Tunnel for Power and Sensitive Fiber Optics

In a move that underscores Beijing’s growing role in Indonesia’s ambitious new capital, Nusantara IKN, the Indonesian government has given China Harbour Indonesia the green light to develop a massive multi-utility tunnel (MUT) and road infrastructure project, including fiber optics, worth approximately $4.4 billion.

U.S. Internet Freedom Pledge Fails to Get Global South Support

Sixty countries signed a U.S.-led “Declaration of the Future of the Internet” late last week that called for greater online "openness and democracy." But who chose not to join is rapidly becoming the main story. But who chose not to join is rapidly becoming the main story. ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

2026: Africa-China Relations in a World Shaped by North-South Geopolitics

When talking about Africa–China relations, one is always moving along a sliding scale. There are myriad interactions with Chinese entities that concern only individual African countries, segueing into trends affecting the whole continent and sliding further into global dynamics shaping the developing world, of which Africa is the heart.

The Africa-China relationship is its own thing, but Africa’s fate can’t easily be separated from factors affecting the wider Global South, ...

Iranian Security Service Buys Advanced Video Surveillance Technology From China

One of China's largest video surveillance companies, Tiandy, is reportedly selling large quantities of sophisticated AI-enabled cameras with facial recognition technology to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and other Iranian security services, according to a report published earlier this month by surveillance research group IPVM.

Ethiopia Seeks to Follow China’s Example By Creating Its Own Social Media Apps as Alternatives to Facebook and Twitter

China's nationalist model of cyber sovereignty received another endorsement in Africa on Monday when Ethiopian officials unveiled new ambitions to "replace" U.S.-made social media and communications apps with local versions that can be regulated and censored.

Burkina Faso Launches New Huawei-Powered Smart City Initiative Using Loan From the China Exim Bank

The Burkina Faso government announced an ambitious new plan last week to build a 650-kilometer fiber-optic network that will connect all of the country's major cities to a new Huawei-powered Smart City platform.  Sensitive to the perception that the ...

New CSIS Report Examines Huawei’s Burgeoning Cloud Services Business in Emerging Markets

While so much of the attention about Huawei's role in emerging markets like Africa focuses on the company's 5G technology, the reality is that the Chinese telco equipment giant is now expanding far beyond hardware, to offer a number of new services that are becoming increasingly popular ...

Be Wary of All Those “Hyperbolic” Reports Warning of the Dangers of Chinese Technology

The fear that China is going to export digital authoritarianism and repression to Africa is way overblown and oversimplified in Western media reports and think tank analysis cautions Iginio Gagliardone, a media scholar at Wits University in Johannesburg and one of the world's foremost scholars ...

China, Africa and the Internet, Again

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa recently discussed African elections and, not surprisingly, the conversation became about China.  The lawmakers latched on to a narrative that the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to ...

Nigeria’s Not the Only African Country Seeking to Impose Chinese-Style Restrictions on Internet Activity

The Chinese-inspired model of government control over digital communications and internet activity is becoming increasingly popular in a number of African countries. While no African country goes to the lengths that China does in regulating online behavior, states like Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Ethiopia are definitely employing ...
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