cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8721733
[Op-ed by Michael Caster, Head of the Global China Program at ARTICLE 19, and co-founder of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization focused on China.]
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Thanks to RightsCon organizer AccessNow’s laudable transparency, we now know what many suspected: RightsCon was effectively canceled by the Zambian government under direct pressure from China.
In a statement released on May 1, AccessNow revealed that on April 27, diplomats from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had reached out to pressure the Government of Zambia over the participation of Taiwanese civil society representatives. A press statement from the government further noted the need to ensure thematic issues aligned with Zambia’s “national values” and “policy priorities,” arguably shorthand for avoiding other topics sensitive to Beijing. Perhaps not so coincidentally, on April 23 China and Zambia signed a development cooperation agreement, including a $1.5 billion USD investment into its energy infrastructure.
While AccessNow says it immediately pushed back, the government’s position did not change. Ultimately, it came to represent a red line. AccessNow says “at a time when this sector is already under immense financial and political strain, what we and our community forcefully experienced is unprecedented and existential.”
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What happened in Zambia also raises questions of security and civil society access for future gatherings. This includes this year’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF), scheduled for Kenya, which has adopted Chinese surveillance infrastructure, or regional fora such as the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APRIGF), to take place in Nepal, which has engaged with China’s Digital Silk Road.
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This is a major escalation in transnational repression and a testament to China’s influence on global digital rights far beyond its borders that deserves reflection.
This should be a stark reminder that, even as we must now face rising threats to the freedom of expression and digital rights from previously aligned governments such as the United States, old school authoritarian actors remain significant threats. To be sure, China has seized on geopolitical shifts and recent US funding cuts to expand its already significant influence in ways that continue to threaten human rights in the digital domain. While this is as much about China’s adverse influence in Africa as it is about its campaign of transnational repression against Taiwan, arguably this assault on inclusive, multistakeholder fora like RightsCon is also indicative of China’s broader authoritarian approach to digital governance, against which advocates for democracy and human rights must push back.
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Four of the top ten countries globally most affected by influence from China are in Africa (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Algeria, and South Africa), according to Taiwan-based Doublethink Lab’s China Index. Beyond these indicators, China’s footprint exists at multiple layers of the tech stack across the continent, including digital infrastructure, ‘smart cities’ and other surveillance tech, and censorship tools.
Last year, researchers from InterSecLab and others analyzed a leak of over 100,000 documents linked to Chinese tech company Geedge Networks—a little known company with ties to the Great Firewall— revealing a web of partnerships that exports China-style ‘cyber sovereignty’ through technology transfers that let other countries replicate similar internet controls. As noted by the researchers, the investigation identified “a pattern of commercialization of surveillance capabilities, with Geedge Networks offering a suite of products that enable comprehensive monitoring and control of internet users.” Ethiopia was one of the named country partners.
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China was able to exert pressure on Zambia to take this unprecedented step toward canceling a major international conference in part because China’s influence on the continent has expanded in the absence of adequate rights-based alternatives. Contesting China’s adverse influence in Africa, and around the world, cannot rest merely on criticizing its assault on human rights but must also come with positive and accessible rights-based solutions to real digital development needs. The world’s remaining liberal democracies must expand their efforts to meet the moment, or risk ceding more of the globe to Chinese-style authoritarianism.
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