By Tarwana Ernest
As far back as 2019, the US placed sanctions on Chinese Tech Company, Huawei alleging spying and industrial espionage against US Tech companies. This led the Americans to place sanctions on Chinese Tech firms which subsequently led to subsequent Huawei mobile devices starting from their flagship P and Mate series being disabled from Google Android infrastructure. These events could be construed as a product of the US China Trade War.
Among others, the U.S has claims that the decision to sanction Chinese tech giant – Huawei is a result of the company’s tight collaboration with Chinese government and therefore cannot trust them in terms of security. Huawei strongly denies U.S’ accusation arguing that they are victims of America’s tech-nationalism which is meant to shield U.S tech firms from stiff competition Huawei is putting up using security concerns as a cover up. Beijing also accuses Washington of launching what they call unfair attacks against Chinese tech firms in what China sees as America’s efforts to contain China’s technology growth.
The U.S has also succeeded in convincing allies to isolate Huawei with the United Kingdom (UK) government blocking the tech giant from its G5 network rollout. While the U.S explicitly mentioned national security concerns as a reason for banning Huawei, in 2020, the UK’s security agencies concluded that any risk posed by Huawei was manageable. Indeed, while announcing the decision to side-line Huawei, then UK’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden explained that London decided to lockout Huawei out of its market as a result of U.S’ sanctions against the firm which meant that Huawei could no longer use American chips in their kits.
However, China’s growth in the tech sector has hardly been impeded. Over the past few years, China has worked quietly to build internal capacity and wean itself off dependence to US firms. Huawei has been at the forefront of this progress.
Equally, Huawei infrastructure has aided most European countries in building their 5G networks. Some of these include Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
Due to the reputable nature of the Chinese firm and its infrastructure, this presents an opportunity for African nations to look aggressively towards China in building their data infrastructure and connectivity.
South Africa has been at that forefront after the recent BRICS Africa Summit, 2023. This including signing bilateral agreements with Huawei to build South Africa’s data infrastructure. If all goes according to plan, South Africa will be one of the few African nations with the most robust 5G networks on the continent.
The Chinese firm also partnered with Saudi Arabia to build cloud data centres serving the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. This presents a chance for African nations to liaise with Huawei in having their data held closer to the continent. In the near future, an African country with capacity could ewaully position itself to host data centres serving the continent or a particular region.
African nations can equally rely on Chinese Tech infrastructure to push for bilateral deals to encourage technology transfer which aides education and innovation on the continent. This can be through setting up innovation hubs and subsequent educational scholarships for students with interest and desire to harness their talents in a technologically advancing world. China presents itself as an opportunity for African youth to build indigenous expertise by learning from an advanced economy with historic links to the continent.
While U.S’ is still trying to convince more countries including in Africa to follow their suit and disengage from Chinese tech firms, African countries should not join this loosing battle. They should grab any opportunity should Chinese tech firms show readiness to work with them.
According to a paper published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which is ranked as the world’s third most influential Think Tank, the formerly technological giants; “Japan and the United States have watched warily as China’s economic heft has grown and as the technological sophistication of its manufacturing base has increased” leaving the U.S worried that Beijing may soon overtake Washington in this important technological revolution. The paper concluded that presently, apart from China, no other country on its own can outcompete China’s determination in technology advancement and suggested that for the U.S to make it, they must form alliances with other like-minded countries as Japan and “update their decades old technological cooperation and deepen funding pools on certain shared strategic priorities, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing”.
As James L. Schoff, a senior fellow in Carnegie observed; “fear of “losing” this competition (Technology) is fuelling an unprecedented scale of investment and a zero-sum mentality that could tempt countries to overreact in ways that would damage their national interests and broader global interests,” stressing that it is better to work with China than in technological advancement than attempting to isolate them.
To conclude, China’s trade conflict with the West presents a chance for Africa to develop her data and technological infrastructure with the aid of Chinese tech firms. This does not mean that if the West presents a fair proposal to support African countries technology adavancement support they should not take it. What must be avoided is U.S’ tendence of attempting to force other countries to deoulple from China’s techology.
Talwana is a Digital Research Fellow at the Deevelopment Watch centre.