Project Details
Projekt
Digital Empire: Chinese Imperial Practices and Infrastructure in the Global South
Applicant
Professor Dr. Maximilian Mayer
Subject Area
Political Science
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 550231771
This project examines the pivotal role of transnational corporations in the expansion of imperial control structures. It explores the imperial practices of Chinese high-tech companies and the party-state in developing digital infrastructure and providing connectivity in the Global South from the mid-2010s to 2030. The project's primary objective is to shed light on the learning processes that facilitate policy adaptations in response to the emergence of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a new digital empire. This will be achieved by examining the increasing coordination and alignment among various Chinese entities. Secondly, we will examine whether and how the practices of Chinese connectivity providers lead to control over infrastructures at all layers of the "digital stack", on which the governments and private sectors of developing countries such as Ethiopia rely. Thirdly, we will evaluate the extent to which Ethiopia is becoming peripheralized as a result of the increasing dominance of Chinese firms and digital dependencies. This project is based on the Research Unit’s (RU) hypothesis that China is evolving into a unique "learning empire". It takes a multi-method approach, combining document analysis, interviews, comparative statistical data on digital dependencies, and case studies based on fieldwork investigating Ethiopia’s increasing reliance on Chinese ICT companies. It does this in five steps/sections/approaches. First, it seeks to shed light on policy learning and associated coordination processes between the Chinese party-state and companies such as Huawei, Transsion, Alibaba and Tencent, including related to the agency of Belt Road Initiative host countries. Second, a quantitative dataset on digital dependencies is utilized to measure the control that Chinese firms have over the different layers of the digital stack in African countries, including Ethiopia. Third, two multisite case studies will examine the creation of infrastructure-related intermediaries by analyzing the design and implementation of digital infrastructure. This includes Telebirr, Ethiopia’s state-owned digital payment system which was developed by Huawei, and Alibaba’s Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). Doing so will help improve understanding of how Chinese ICT firms affect the emergence of intermediaries. Fourth, we will determine the progress of infrastructural peripheralization, including its paradoxes and limitations, as part of China’s digital empire in the Global South. This will involve examining the extent to which the Ethiopian state, start-ups and universities have aligned with Chinese regulatory policies and political narratives concerning digital infrastructure. Finally, we will consider the extent to which Chinese actors and the imperial center are becoming more autonomous as dependencies in the periphery increase and the special role that Chinese tech firms play in this development.
DFG Programme
Research Units
