Woven networks: technological upgrading, standards and Chinese ICT corporations in North Africa

This dissertation asks whether the globalisation of Chinese digital capital creates opportunities for technological upgrading and structural transformation in host developing countries or, conversely, hinders the accumulation of technological capabilities and broader economic transformation. Using a mixed-methods approach – including an original dataset, 107 fieldwork interviews with local, Chinese, and foreign stakeholders, and extensive documentary research – this thesis examines the role of Huawei and ZTE in Algeria and Egypt, two key recipients of Chinese digital projects. The analysis draws on a political economy framework that integrates two strands of the literature: (1) heterodox development theory to assess spillovers and the role of foreign firms in upgrading, and (2) technopolitics to analyse the politics, norms and standards conveyed through digital infrastructure. The research finds that the role of Chinese firms in fostering technological upgrading in host developing countries is at best mixed. While the globalisation of China’s ICT industry has helped expand internet access and is increasingly fostering managerial knowledge spillovers through greater labour localisation in senior roles, it does not substantially contribute to consolidating technological capabilities nor boosting productivity in the domestic ICT industries. What might initially seem like developmental connections promoting domestic capabilities are, in fact, linkages diffusing – through fibre optic cables, data centres, antennas, routers, and training programmes – new norms, protocols, and standards that reconfigure local ICT ecosystems and integrate them into distinct technopolitical regimes. Thus, Chinese digital corporations are disseminating, both intentionally and unintentionally, de facto standards from the ground up, via the construction of cost-competitive digital infrastructure. Fieldwork findings from Algeria and Egypt reveal that the operations of the two Chinese firms, like those of Western competitors, have hindered local actors in expanding their share of domestic markets and consolidating their capabilities. Both governments appeared to prioritise efficiency and immediate access to cutting-edge digital infrastructure over long-term learning and upgrading. In the current context of heightened geopolitical tensions and increasingly bifurcated digital systems, developing countries face growing pressure from dominant actors that are extending their regulatory influence as a strategy to consolidate extraterritorial economic and political power. I argue that the extent to which developing countries can harness this intensifying competition for national development will ultimately depend on local configurations of power, capabilities, and the use of digital industrial policies to bolster strategic autonomy.