South African and Chinese Companies Aim to Shape Africa's Digital Landscape

 South Africa's MTN Group and China's Huawei signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 28 February 2024 to create a joint innovation technology lab in South Africa.  The two companies will collaborate to shape Africa's digital ecosystem in areas such as 5-G and beyond, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing, and digital financial services.  

China's Huawei Announces Large Investment in North Africa

 Ahram Online posted on 26 September 2023 an article titled "Huawei Announces $430 Mln 5-year Investment Plan for North Africa."

Huawei's investment over five years includes $200 million for a cloud computing center in North Africa and $200 million to support 200 of Huawei's local technology partners and 1,300 distributors.  The goal is to build a computing backbone for China.

China Expands Submarine Cable Effort in African Waters

 Foreign Policy published on 10 March 2023 an article titled "The Next Superpower Battlefield Could Be Under the Sea in Africa" by Joseph B. Keller, Brookings Institution.  

The accelerated construction of submarine cables in African waters gives significant leverage to China while creating a security vulnerability due to the risk of Russian espionage.  Chinese construction has become an important pillar of Beijing's foreign policy agenda.  Russia's military and naval capabilities have the capacity to tap into the cables for espionage purposes.  Western countries need to be alert to the implications of African submarine cable proliferation going forward.   

Popular Chinese Smartphone in Africa Teams Up with Google

 Yicai published on 5 December 2022 an article titled "Chinese Owner of African Hit Phone Brands Tecno, Itel Jumps on Google Partnership" by Xu Wei.  

Transsion Holdings, the leading smartphone supplier in Africa with handset brands Tecno, Itel, and Infinix, announced it will team up with Google on the Android operating system, online advertising, and cloud services.  Transsion will use Google's advertising tools to help transform its digital platform business, improve its advertising monetization, and use Google Cloud to enhance its operational capabilities.  

China's Huawei Expansion into Africa Raises Security Questions

The Epoch Times, a multi-language newspaper with headquarters in New York, published on 20 January 2019 an article titled "Huawei's Expansion in Africa Comes under Scrutiny" by Frank Fang.

The Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei, entered the African market in 1999 and has become a major player in its telecoms infrastructure. Huawei helped build more than fifty 3G networks in thirty-six African countries and is now trying to monopolize 5G technology and cloud data storage. Although African governments do not seem to be concerned about potential espionage considerations, American sources are sounding alarm bells.

This article preceded by several days a front page story in The New York Times dated 26 January 2019 and titled "America Pushes Allies to Fight Huawei in New Arms Race with China" by David E. Sanger, Julian E. Barnes, Raymond Zhong, and Marc Santora. While not focused on Africa, the article raises many of the same issues.