Italy has announced its formal withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative after joining the China-centered infrastructure and investment project in 2019.
The timing of the announcement that Rome won’t renew its BRI commitment is notable. It came only a day before the EU-China summit, which kicks off on Thursday. The summit will likely be more contentious than usual, with European leaders expected to push China on the treatment of EU firms amid discussions ...
Category: Surveillance
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. ...
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 ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Awkward Timing as Italy Withdraws from BRI
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 ...
Will COVID-19 Be the End of Africans in Guangzhou? I Think So, and This Is Why.
Migration to China will never be the same after COVID-19. The health crisis and its consequences will severely impact on local, translocal, and transnational forms of migration. Once COVID-19 ceases to be a threat, foreigners in China will face a new regime of mobility characterized by artificial ...
Huawei’s Surveillance Technology Program “Safe Cities” Now Active in 12 African Countries
The Washington, D.C.-based think tank CSIS published a new report today on the global reach of Huawei's "Safe Cities" products that include facial and license-plate recognition, social media monitoring, and other surveillance capabilities. CSIS researchers Jonathan Hillman and Maesea McCalpin provided a ...