Digital Silk Road and Geopolitical Realignment in Central Asia

Abstract

China's Digital Silk Road (DSR) is changing geopolitical dynamics, technical dependency and debates on digital sovereignty across Central Asia. As China increasingly uses technical statecraft, exports digital governance models and engages in global standard-setting in order to increase its regional presence, the DSR represents a move away towards the strategic use of information power. This study examines the impact of China's DSR investments on the geopolitical context and the emerging concept of digital sovereignty among Central Asian countries. It examines whether China's increasing digital footprint is greeted with cooperation, adaptation or resistance from the local actors. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of complex interdependence and constructivism, this study is an explanatory multiple-case design that comprises all five Central Asian states; Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This methodology facilitates a systematic examination of the strategic rationale behind the digital expansion of China and the region's differentiated policy responses. Empirical evidence points to digital interdependence in Central Asia as not necessarily all good or all evil. Rather it is a reflection of a negotiated political environment where material power, normative ideals and technical infrastructures are present. While the Chinese government pursues the narrative of a "shared digital future", regional governments reinterpret, recalibrate and adapt this vision according to their own identities, geopolitical interests and concerns about sovereignty. Overall, the findings contribute to the broader context of the discussion about digital geopolitics, technical dependence and the emergence of a new digital world order