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Paper abstract:

Modernisation of Kazakhstan’s digital infrastructure has brought the population under growing systematic control, and Kazakh media have voiced concern that government authorities are about to introduce a Chinese-style social credit system. Central Asian states, due to their Soviet past, have intelligence practices that is implemented with an aim to serve the state and safeguard its political power, such as Russia’s Operative Investigative Measures (SORM). This allows state agencies direct legal access to any national communication system. However, three commercial actors are involved for SORM to work: the manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, the communications service provider, and the surveillance companies. Most global tech companies have resisted attempts to impose particularly intrusive surveillance practices. Chinese technology, however, appears instrumental in enabling invasive mass surveillance. Considering that Chinese e-commerce, telecommunications, technology - and security companies are taking root, this paper hopes to understand China’s role in Kazakhstan’s authoritarian digitalisation by identifying how Chinese technologies interweave with local sociotechnical imaginaries (STI).

The trajectory of STIs depends on particularities of the past, the struggles of the present, and fantasies about the future. Understanding the historical underpinnings of various power structures is therefore crucial to understand the significance of present actors. Kazakh authoritarian elite interest is supported by Nazarbayev’s nation building and informs the country’s digitalisation process. This paper trace Kazakh STIs through the post-soviet blueprint of local surveillance infrastructures and communication networks, the historical foundations for perspectives on human rights, religion, and clan-oriented power structures, and analyse how these STIs interact with China’s regional security narrative.