China Africa and the Future of the Internet

"This book tells the story of the increasing presence of China in Africa, vis-à-vis the internet and how and to what extent China is actually shaping the information societies in Africa. China has supported a lot of national projects at the government level, setting up projects for delivering e-services and communications infrastructure in Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, for example. China’s presence in this respect is quite unique: it always gets presented as radically different from what western firms are trying to do. There is this idea that a ‘Chinese model’ is being exported to Africa. What the book is doing is trying to unpack that myth and say that the fight isn’t about West and East. It tries to balance the claims about the dangers of the Chinese model being exported. There’s this fear that the Chinese model is a closed internet model, but the book also points to contradictions in the agendas of other international donors from the West. One of the questions that the book asks is, ‘Is it really about China?’ The book offers a really interesting answer to the idea that there is a war emerging between the two parts of this new bipolar world. Gagliardone argues that this polarity is exaggerated because, in reality, there are various levels of engagement. Both sides are actually working together in some cases, or in some kind of hybrid fashion. The book tells you how Chinese firms have gained entry to the African market, through different kinds of partnerships and networks that already existed. They had to contend with pre-existing firms and their partners. “The books that I’m recommending provide a balance between hopes and aspirations and the reality” The Chinese model uses a concept of sovereignty that allows countries to choose their own conception of what the internet is, what kind of models they want, and what kind of plans they put in place. They are trying to navigate these things. One of the things Chinese firms would normally do is to highlight the benefits of their technology, but not the Chinese model per se . That comes out quite strongly from the book. In Ghana and Kenya, Huawei helped support infrastructure development, to deliver e-services for the government, while for the Ethiopian government, ZTE and Huawei were helping the government expand the internet, under the monopoly control of the government itself, perhaps for different purposes, namely to control and monitor and surveillance of the local population. These things stand out. The second important message that comes out of the book is that while this does suggest that China is increasingly exerting influence over African economies and African politics , there is a sense of increased agency, or the capacity of the African states and their governments, to shape their societies, including in relation to the role of Chinese firms and the Chinese government. It’s not necessarily about bringing in an authoritarian actor, it’s also about helping the government to achieve certain gains. I think that is why in some circles China’s presence is applauded and accepted and in others it is not. For individual users, there is a very bleak picture emerging. There is a danger of surveillance and monitoring of users. Governments have been doing it in Ethiopia, they have done the same thing in Rwanda and in Kenya. So I think overall, it’s not that the Chinese strategies are worse or better than their competitors, but they are basically contributing to a trend of eroding any possibility of shaping a global internet that is open and free for most people. I think this book captures that message perfectly well."