Chinese companies have been building digital infrastructures around the world for nearly three decades. Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and of the Digital Silk Road in 2015, these activities have been increasingly viewed through a geopolitical lens, as a centralized strategy by the Chinese government to build an alternative to US-dominated internet infrastructure. However, as the study of Kazakhstan’s Telecom sector shows, this seemingly unified strategy is in fact appropriated by local actors and shaped by existing histories, economic legacies, and political environments. Developing countries carve out their own original digital trajectories rather than simply align with dominant powers.
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