Paper short abstract:

China – its state and multinationals – has a new and fast-growing digital influence on economies, societies, infrastructure and politics of the global South. The panel analyses: Chinese strategies and policies, implementations and impacts; and competition and comparisons with Western nations.

Paper long abstract:

China – through actions of its state and its digital multinationals – has a new and fast-growing digital influence on economies, societies, infrastructure and politics of the global South. Prior work in development has focused on China’s expansion in resource- and labour-intensive sectors, but rapid growth in digital means that research is pushing to keep up with the potentially disruptive effect of this new digital superpower.

The panel welcomes papers on any aspect of this topic area – policies, strategies, implementations, impacts – with analyses that could include but are not limited to:

- Infrastructure: “Digital Silk Road” components of the Belt and Road Initiative

- Economy: growing presence of Chinese digital firms in key economic sectors of global South nations; the impact of digital trade with China; the role of China’s digital currency

- Society: growth of Chinese social media platforms and apps

- Politics: export of China’s surveillance and public security technologies; issues of data sovereignty

- Standards: China’s role in development and promotion of new digital standards

- Geopolitics: implications of multi-polar global digital leadership including comparative analysis of China’s digital strategies and role and impacts compared to those of Western nations

- Actors and Processes: the relationship between various arms of China’s party-state, its digital firms and other actors in driving forward digital expansion; mechanisms of trade and investment; rationale behind strategic digital actions

Paper short abstract:

Examines the political economy of digital platforms in Thailand, with a focus on e-commerce platforms. Highlights contestations between domestic platforms, start-ups and Chinese digital giants, with implications for markets and digitalised production.

Paper long abstract:

There is growing interest in the role of digital technologies within markets in the global south, with implications for growth and development. An important shift has been the emergence of digital platforms which have particularly come to the fore during the pandemic.

Critiquing ‘platform determinist’ approaches to examining platforms, this paper uses the notion of ‘creating platform economies’ to more deeply investigate the dynamics that enable platforms to become a key part of markets and/or production. Through an analysis of these dynamics, it is possible to better understand patterns of coordination and power in platforms and their potential impacts on broader development trajectories.

Analysis of e-commerce in South East Asia, with a focus on Thailand, expands this perspective. The paper examines contestations between domestic platforms, venture capital supported start-ups, and Chinese digital giants which are shaping e-commerce in Thailand.

A detailed political economy of specific spheres of contention is discussed. The analysis focusses on embeddedness of digital trade rules and logistics frameworks, as well as broader trends of FDI, and 'e-commerce diplomacy'. These dynamics will be important in shaping markets and digitalised production in the region in the future.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on fieldwork interviews and secondary data, this paper shows a nuanced picture of alignment with DSR in overseas expansion for Chinese firms in the ICT ecosystem. Moreover, local stakeholders have agency in shaping the regulation and diffusion of Chinese tech to mitigate negative impacts.

Paper long abstract:

Once a more obscure part of China’s BRI at its inception, the Digital Silk Road (DSR) has become prominent in policy discussions in recent years, with views ranging from Beijing's strategy co-opting Chinese firms to control the global Internet, to win-win collaboration for ICT-driven growth and sustainability. Yet more grounded analysis converging top-down processes and bottom-up local perspectives of Chinese player’s engagement with the host countries is scarce. This paper fills the gap and shows a more nuanced picture of the firms’ behavior and the host countries' responses in Chinese tech firms’ overseas expansion. Drawing on Fransman’s framework of ICT ecosystem grouping players in the ICT sector into multiple layers, this study finds that Chinese firms at more foundational layers of network element provision and network operation have displayed more willingness to align with DSR-related Chinese policies and rhetoric in their expansion in emerging Asian markets. In comparison, Chinese firms at the upper layer providing platform, content, applications largely conduct their expansion driven by profit maximization, independent of the DSR-related policies and rhetoric, and some have carefully avoided direct alignment in engaging local players considering local sentiment towards BRI. Moreover, contrary to the common depiction of host countries as passive players, the study finds that local governments and stakeholders have shown agency in shaping the diffusion of Chinese-invested technologies and the development outcomes of projects. This study employs primary data gathered from fieldwork in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore) and secondary data from print and online documents.

Paper short abstract:

We interrogate and compare Huawei’s impacts in Ghana and Kenya using International Trade theory on the role of MNEs in development as an analytical framework. We find positive contributions towards socioeconomic and digital infrastructure development but adverse impacts on the politics.

Paper long abstract:

The digital economy has fundamentally changed the global economy, the way firms produce and market goods and services across borders thereby providing digital multinationals (MNEs) an unprecedented opportunity to enter foreign markets easily. This has also made it more difficult to regulate and track the impact of digital MNEs on their host countries. China’s digital MNEs have taken advantage of this opportunity establishing a new and fast-growing digital influence on economies, societies, infrastructure and politics of the global South. Ghana and Kenya are 2 countries on the African continent that continue to host some of China’s digital MNEs. Specifically, these two countries have fostered economic relations with Chinese global tech company, Huawei, for about 2 decades now. Arguably, it is expected that these relationships would accelerate Africa’s effective participation in the world digital economy. Yet, limited scholarship has investigated the socioeconomic impact of the Chinese tech MNEs on their host countries. Leveraging on the ongoing debate about the implications of Chinese MNEs in the global south, this study interrogates the following question: What has been the impacts of Huawei on the socioeconomic development, competition, infrastructure, and politics in Africa? Using a case study research design as well as International Trade theory on the role of MNEs in development as an analytical framework to comparatively investigate the impacts of Huawei’s operations in Ghana and Kenya for the last 2 decades, the study finds that in both countries Huawei positively contributes to socioeconomic and digital infrastructure development but negatively impacts the politics.