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There are many threads of discourse in Africa-China relations, inspired by growing flows of investment, trade, and aid. One important consideration in the budding relationships between African states and China is the adoption of digital infrastructure and surveillance technologies.1 Many experts have argued that China's intentions are to garner access to African developing markets while also allowing Beijing a "backdoor" through which to secure access to data. Thus, research and media coverage have focused disproportionately on Chinese reasons and incentives in the proliferation of information and communications technology (ICT) and surveillance technology, but little systematic attention has focused on the multiple uses, properties, and applications of these digital tools in local environments. For this reason, this essay seeks to critically examine some of the more familiar preoccupations about the exportation of Chinese governance and surveillance technologies to Africa in the process of developing countries' ICT infrastructure and smart cities.
The essay chiefly brings to the fore the local factors that contribute to the growing use of Chinese digital infrastructure in Kenya. There is limited analytical research on the spread of Chinese digital infrastructure and its consequences for African local environments and actors. Accordingly, the essay seeks to examine the growing use of Chinese-produced digital infrastructure in Kenya and its consequences. It focuses attention on the often-neglected details of Chinese operations and local smart city initiatives. Precisely, the aim is to expand understanding of how local factors and conditions mediate China's growing geopolitical footprint.
This essay is divided into four parts. The first section discusses the Kenyan case as an example of the establishment of Chinese ICT infrastructure in an African context. It explores the corporate and public nexuses that buttress the vision of a digitalized Kenyan society and demonstrates that Chinese engagements are in part a consequence of local factors, which challenges notions of a Chinese strategy to export normative values and surveillance practices. At the same time, this position does not necessarily imply the absence of Chinese state strategy in Africa and threats to civil liberties. Rather, it simply illustrates how local and global factors play into each other and how they determine practical outcomes. The second section looks at the adoption of smart cities in Kenya and the so-called safe city model, which...