China plans to deepen influence in Uganda with digital projects

Fear of repression of political opponents

This comes at the time many scholars and organisations in the west fear that the Chinese move to deepen its relations in Africa with the ICT based projects could spread authoritarianism.

Already, China’s Huawei Technologies has been accused of allegedly helping African governments spy on political opponents, including surveillance and distributing spyware, leading to arrests and other crackdowns.

The US- based publication, Wall Street Journal, published a deep investigation two years ago which showed that Uganda and Zambia were among the countries where authorities got direct help from Huawei employees to crack down opposition.

These measures included surveillance cameras, phone tapping, and cracking encrypted communications with spyware. The report said the pop singer turned politician Bobi Wine’s supposedly secret meeting were busted by the Ugandan police, and his driver was killed. However, Huawei has vehemently denied the claims.

A 2020 study published by Amy Tong titled ‘China’s ICT Engagement in Africa: A Comparative Analysis’ using  Ethiopia and South Africa and the broader African continent reveal  that though China’s rising role in the ICT world does stem from its objectives of economic growth and soft power expansion, its interests in ICT investment in Africa expand beyond basic consideration of wealth of natural resources, economic stability, and political motives, as it penetrated deeper into the Ethiopian telecommunications industry than what conventional wisdom may have suggested especially in relation to the surveillance of citizens and potential suppression of political dissent.

Furthermore, from the cases of Ethiopia, South Africa, and other countries in Africa, the study says it appears that although western concerns of the spread of political illiberalism are legitimate, in reality, China’s intentions are more economically focused.

However, western countries including the US are also seeking for a pie of trade of the Africa’s trade opportunities. Available data shows that US trade with Africa’s 54 countries accounts for less than 2% of its total external trade.

Early this month, the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa in an official capacity, visiting Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal, seeking to strengthen cooperation between US and Africa.

Blinken, who was unveiled the Biden administration’s Africa policy, said the US will focus its engagement on five key areas: enhancing trade; dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic; climate change; promoting democracy and peace and security.

He said Africa is the world’s youngest continent, with estimates suggesting that by 2050 one in four people in the world will be African.  As such, he said, this population dividend will shape the global affairs for decades to come but many challenges remain.

FOCAC meeting

Lizhong said this year’s FOCAC themed ‘Deepen China-Africa Partnership and Promote Sustainable Development to Build a China-Africa Community with a Shared Future in the New Era,’ will focus on cooperation areas such as health, industrial capacity, regional connectivity, agricultural, digital sector, environmental, military and security, personnel and skills training.

The conference will also review and assess the follow-up implementation of the outcomes of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit as well as the joint China-Africa response to COVID-19, and chart the course for China-Africa relations for the next three years.

Furthermore, the conference is also scheduled to adopt four documents: Dakar Declaration of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, FOCAC Dakar Action Plan (2022-2024), 2035 Vision for China-Africa Cooperation and China-Africa Declaration on Climate Change.

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