The Digital Silk Road and Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific

 Article 19, a UK-based international organization with 9 regional offices devoted to freedom of expression, posted on 18 April 2024 a report titled "The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific."

The report examines China's digital infrastructure and governance influence in Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand.  While the study does not deal with Africa, it offers lessons for China's digital engagement with the continent.

The report argues that assessing China's partnerships and what they mean for rising repression is vital to understanding China's ambitions to rewire the world and rewrite the rules that govern the digital space.  By expanding its authoritarian model, China aims to ultimately supplant the tenets of internet freedom and rights-based principles of global digital governance.  

Internet Freedom in Africa

 Freedom House recently published its annual "Freedom on the Net 2021."  It evaluated how governments censor and control the digital sphere in 63 countries, including 17 in Africa.

Of the 17 African countries, the only one ranked "free" was South Africa.  Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Sudan ranked "not free" and the others ranked "partially free."  

Ethiopia: What Can the International Community Do?

 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace posted on 1 December 2020 remarks titled "Ethiopia's Conflict in Tigray Presents Hard Decisions" by Steven Feldstein.

The author suggests three steps the international community should take now to help defuse the conflict in Ethiopia. 

China's Huawei and Surveillance Technology in Africa

Deutsche Welle posted on 12 September 2019 a report titled "Huawei, Africa and the Global Reach of Surveillance Technology."

Huawei is just one of many private companies looking to sell potentially oppressive technology to authoritarian governments. Many of Huawei's biggest competitors and collaborators are based in the West. Recent accusations regarding Huawei's activity in both Zambia and Uganda demonstrate the murky and often opaque sale of surveillance technology. The UN's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression states that "this is an out of control industry with grave implications, worldwide, for privacy and freedom of expression."

China and Africa's Internet

Power 3.0 posted on 6 December 2018 a commentary titled "The Imitation Game: Will China's Investments Reshape Africa's Internet?" by Emeka Umejei, University of Witwatersrand.


Chinese information communication giants ZTE and Huawei are ranked among the top five telecommunication providers in Africa. China promotes state control of online activity within a country's borders as a matter of political security, without regard for free expression. The author asks what will be the impact of China's Internet policy on African governments.

China Exports Digital Surveillance to Africa

Quartz Africa posted on 1 November 2018 an article titled "China Is Exporting Its Digital Surveillance Methods to African Governments" by Abdi Latif Dahir.

Based on a global study dated October 2018 by Freedom House titled "Freedom on the Net 2018," the article suggests that China is helping African governments to censor the internet and control the flow of information.