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- Convenors:
-
Jasmin Dall'Agnola
(The George Washington University)
Oyuna Baldakova (King's College London)
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- Chair:
-
Elisa Oreglia
(King's College London)
- Discussant:
-
Elisa Oreglia
(King's College London)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Theme:
- Economics
- Location:
- Room 105
- Sessions:
- Sunday 26 June, -
Time zone: Asia/Tashkent
Short Abstract:
The main aim of the panel is to shed light on the Digital Silk Road's emergent effects in Central Eurasia. Panelists explore questions such as: How do Chinese tech firms collaborate with China's party-state and local actors in the region? Do Chinese technologies appeal to local elites and citizens?
Long Abstract:
Recent scholarship on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central Eurasia has predominantly focused on its infrastructure projects, namely ports, roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines. Less attention has been paid by scholars to the BRI's digital element, the Digital Silk Road (DSR). Although some estimate that DSR-related investments in digital infrastructure projects outside China already surpass USD 79 billion, comprehensive data on the scale of DSR projects and investments is difficult to locate. Whether or not a given IT project is related to the DSR also remains often unclear. Moreover, little is known about how Chinese tech firms are engaging in these developments and are operating in the BRI partner countries. The main aim of the papers presented within this panel is to shed light on the DSR and its emergent effects in Central Eurasia.
In analyzing Alibaba Cloud and Amazon Web Services' cross-border data policies, Dr. Weidi Zheng examines how Chinese tech firms operating under the banner of the DSR implement the Chinese state's data policies in- and outside China. Dr. Oyuna Baldakova explores how China Telecom collaborates with local state actors and state-owned tech companies in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Temur Umarov, in contrast, looks at Central Asian regimes' willingness to embrace China's digital know-how and technologies. Dr. Jasmin Dall'Agnola, in investigating the wider public's support for CCTV cameras in public places, discusses what the normalization of mass state surveillance, intensified by the DSR, has come to mean for individuals' data and privacy in Central Asia.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Sunday 26 June, 2022, -Jasmin Dall'Agnola (The George Washington University)
Paper short abstract:
In investigating whether Central Asian people's privacy concerns affects their approval of CCTV cameras in public spaces, I seek to illustrate what the normalization of CCTV, intensified by China's DSR, has come to mean for individuals in Central Asia.
Paper long abstract:
Already prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese technology companies were known for promoting and selling their closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems to Central Asian countries under the banner of China's Digital Silk Road (DSR). As a result, Chinese technology firms are by far the most dominant suppliers of CCTV equipment in the region. While video cameras, whether of Chinese origin or not, are useful for efforts to combat the virus, recent studies have paid little attention to the wider Central Asian public's attitude toward their presence. This article is designed to fill this gap with regard to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. To investigate whether Central Asian people's privacy concerns - the independent variable - affects their approval of CCTV cameras in public spaces - the dependent variable - the World Values Survey Wave 7 (Haerpfer et al. 2022) country data sets for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was used to run several regression analyses in R.
Weidi Zheng (KCL)
Paper short abstract:
This paper unpacks the contradictory stances between China's globalising internet and its concept of 'digital sovereignty' regarding cross-border data flow and how they are put in practice by Chinese tech companies doing business abroad by taking Alibaba Cloud and AWS as comparative case studies.
Paper long abstract:
Crossing the so-called Great Fire Wall, Beijing has been pushing Chinese tech companies to enter international markets, particularly through its Digital Silk Road (DSR) that could arguably connect the world’s data to a China-centered transnational network infrastructure (Shen, 2018). On the one hand, data flowing across the borders are an intrinsic part of the DSR. This contributes to raising suspicions about China’s motives, leading some to predict the rise of a fragmented internet (Hoffman et al. 2020). On the other, China emphasizes the concept of ‘digital sovereignty’(wangluo zhuquan), ‘data localisation’ (shuju bendihua) and ‘localisation of data compliance’ (bendihua hegui), domestically and internationally (Hong & Goodnight, 2020). How can these two contradictory stances towards data be reconciled, and how are they put in practice by Chinese tech companies doing business abroad? In this paper, we focus on Alibaba Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS), two key players in China’s tech ‘going out’, as case studies, in order to understand the complex relationship between the Chinese State, Chinese tech companies, and foreign transnational enterprises regarding cross-order data transfers and compliance. Adopting document analysis, we start by reviewing Chinese government’s policies on globalizing its internet/tech industry and on localizing data, and frame them in the context of on-going debates among Chinese policymakers, industry insiders and academics on cross-border data transfers and governance. We then look at Alibaba Cloud and AWS’s transnational partnership strategies and specific data policies in the EU and China, to understand how such policies are put in practice.
Oyuna Baldakova (King's College London)
Paper short abstract:
This article analyzes China Telecom supporting development of ICT infrastructure in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It offers a multi-scalar analysis of countries’ bilateral relations, digital policy planning, and implementation of ICT projects by local firms in cooperation with Chinese counterparts.
Paper long abstract:
First mentioned in 2015 as a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Digital Silk Road (DSR) has since attracted heightened international attention and inspired polarizing interpretations. Critics believe that through the DSR investments China promotes and exports not only its tech products and standardsб but also its development model and a China-centered trade and financial system (Eurasia Group 2020; Hemmings 2020). Proponents, on the other hand, contend that China, enables countries in the Global South to bridge the digital divide and spur economic growth and sustainable development (Hernandez 2019; Sen and Bingqin 2019). Although there has been much research on the Chinese tech companies going out, more on the ground collaborations and tensions between Chinese tech firms and local state actors and state-owned tech companies have received limited attention. This article addresses this empirical gap by focusing on China Telecom supporting the development of ICT infrastructure in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and offering a multi-scalar (regional, national, and local) analysis of the countries’ bilateral relations, national digital industrial policy planning, and implementation of the ICT infrastructure projects by local firms in cooperation with the Chinese counterparts. Drawing from primary documents, secondary literature, and datasets of national agencies and public databases, this paper shows how the DSR concept is being appropriated by the countries’ industrial tech policy and provides an analysis of the firm collaboration during the DSR implementation stage in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan offering a closer look at the tension between broader national digital agendas and individual companies’ strategies.
Temur Umarov (Carnegie Moscow Center)
Paper short abstract:
Recently the political regimes of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have implemented Chinese technological instruments into their governance. It is believed that Beijing is pushing others to adopt its know-how, but less is known about the demand side of the process. What does Central Asia learn from China?
Paper long abstract:
After 30 years of becoming independent states the political regimes of Central Asian Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are on their way to transforming. In this process, the implementation of technological instruments into governance might potentially play an important role to make a leap towards further development. But Central Asian states do not have to create strategies of governance digitalizing from the scratch, there are already other countries that have gone through this process. China is one example.
Chinese great technological leap in the early 2000-s has become one of the main reasons for the fast development not only of its economy but the stability of its political regime. Today almost no aspect of the Chinese government’s interaction with society cannot be imagined without modern technological instruments.
The Chinese experience is something that Central Asian countries are looking up to while struggling with their own development problems. But usually, when it comes to Chinese technologies spreading to Central Asia, there’s the idea that it happens mainly because Beijing pushes this process. In this paper, I want to analyze local news, existing agreements between Kazakh and Uzbek corporations, and state institutions with their Chinese counterparts to measure the demand side of using Chinese know-how in governance. Why do local regimes choose China as a role model and how do they adopt Chinese practices to local specificities?