Making sense of China’s « Digital Silk Roads » : exploring China’s data territorialization strategy at its borders. Case studies of Xinjiang and Guangxi provinces.
Nowmay OPALINSKI , Université Paris 8 - GEODE, France
The digital component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), or "Digital Silk Road" (DSR), has been part of Beijing's global project from the very beginning in 2013, involving the construction of key infrastructure in the physical layer of the Internet (fiber optic cables, mobile networks, data centers, etc.) and the export of online platforms. Carried by various actors: large telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, online service providers, etc., this initiative is mainly discussed from the angle of the actions of Chinese actors abroad, but little attention has been paid to its implications on the domestic scene.
This presentation proposes to address the planning policies of Chinese border provinces in the context of the DSR, with a particular focus on the creation of zones dedicated to cross-border digital activities with neighboring countries. In a domestic context where access to data and its processing have become criteria of attractiveness in the internal competition between Chinese provinces - to attract companies and obtain subsidies from the central government -, this presentation proposes to focus on the strategies implemented by the border provinces of Xinjiang and Guangxi in order to create cross-border digital activity zones integrated with the physical infrastructure networks located in China and in the neighboring countries (data centers, terrestrial cables, etc.) Our objective will be to decipher the planning strategies of these provinces, to make sense of the local Big Data development policy in China and to propose a new cartography of China's borders through the lense of digital infrastructures. Particular attention will be paid to the process of data territorialization embedded in the development strategies of border provinces and its conceptualization linked to China’s definition of ‘cyber- sovereignty’.
Mots clés : data territorialization|cyber-sovereignty |Digital Silk Roads |China |Big Data strategy
A103655NO