The Digital Silk Road and Smart City Networks in the Indo-Pacific: A Primer
“Of these sub-initiatives, the DSR [Digital Silk Road] has emerged as a priority sub-stream of BRI. Launched in 2017 as a key component of BRI [Belt and Road Initiative], the DSR promotes ICT cooperation and digital infrastructure development, especially in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). Backed by Chinese state banks and private and state tech firms, Beijing signed DSR cooperation agreements with around 40 countries, with 24 of them in the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific DSR cooperation agreements committed US$22 billion in investments, loans, construction contracts, and technological exports.”
“The DSR also includes Chinese-sponsored overseas hi-tech manufacturing hubs and smart cities that amalgamate the DSR’s ICT cooperation across various domains such as surveillance, undersea cables, 5G/4G cooperation, hi-tech manufacturing, BeiDou navigation systems, cloud computing, and cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), with traditional BRI infrastructure development.”
“Smart city diplomacy also bolsters China’s foreign policy objectives. Building a smart city or digital hub with China provides host governments with visible, high-tech assistance that can deepen bilateral ties. China has institutionalised the DSR through MoUs and cooperative forums: by 2022, it had signed dozens of DSR and e-commerce agreements across Asia and beyond. Hosting Chinese smart city projects can thus be portrayed as stepping stones in the Belt and Road partnerships. These projects often export Chinese ideas about governance and cyberspace norms. Chinese leaders explicitly promote ‘cyber-sovereignty’—the idea that each state should follow China’s model of internet control—through DSR initiatives.”