IMAGE: Emeka Umejei

Abstract

An emerging discourse contends that China has become a willing collaborator for digital technology abuse
through substantial investments in Africa’s digital infrastructure, thus leaving digital power at the
discretion of unstable African governments. However, it is unclear whether Chinese companies are willing
collaborators with autocratic regimes in advancing China’s model of digital authoritarianism in the African
continent. Despite the need to better understand the changing dynamics of China’s role in aiding
authoritarian regimes through digital technologies, research that responds to these concerns remains
empirically understudied and under-conceptualised. The central question this paper addresses is: How
does China’s model of digital authoritarianism affect autocratic politics and the trajectory of authoritarian
regimes in Africa? The article’s primary objective is to investigate allegations that China is promoting its
internet model, which includes censorship and restrictions, through digital investments in African
countries. A related aim is to examine how African governments have abused their digital infrastructure
to undermine their electoral processes and roll back democratic gains made since the early 1990s. In
grappling with these concerns, part of this paper’s contribution is to explore critical practices and
meanings of power that appear to have produced trajectories towards digital authoritarianism in Africa.
The paper’s main departure point is the proposition that democratic rollbacks can be only partially
understood by tracing China’s digital footprints on the continent. The article finds proliferating discourses
that China is exporting an authoritarian digital authoritarianism model to Africa misleading. Instead, the
evidence suggests that African autocracies are exploiting the adoption of China’s model of the internet to
roll back democratic gains through surveillance and censorship of civil liberties.

DOWNLOAD PDF