Diversified data pathways

Digital Silk Road offers the Global South an alternative to the ecosystem dominated by the big Western tech firms

Global South countries are confronted with the dual challenges of securing their digital transition and integration on the one hand, and defending digital sovereignty, cybersecurity and technological independence on the other.

As the most digitally developed Global South country, China is offering a major platform for its partners in the BRICS and beyond through the Digital Silk Road. As other Global South countries take major steps toward digital sovereignty, the combined capabilities of these nations will help build a fairer and more inclusive global digital governance framework in the next decade.

The digital infrastructure of the BRICS is a large but uneven ecosystem shaped by rapid expansion and structural disparities. Collectively, these countries host a substantial share of global internet users and are investing heavily in digital systems as foundations for economic growth and technological autonomy. However, quantitative indicators reveal wide differences in the maturity of their digital ecosystems: Internet penetration ranges from roughly 70 percent in India to over 80 percent in China and some 90 percent in Russia. Data center capacity is even more uneven. While China is hosting hundreds of large-scale data centers (with more edge facilities) and is approaching 40 gigawatts of capacity, the markets of India and Brazil remain in the 1 to 2 GW range — an order-of-magnitude gap that underscores China's lead in artificial intelligence-era infrastructure build-out.

These disparities are not merely developmental gaps; they reflect strategic vulnerabilities. The vast differences in infrastructure maturity create an internal dependency chain, where the less-equipped members inevitably rely on external, often Western-controlled, digital corridors and cloud services for global data transit. This digital capacity reliance of the BRICS member states effectively undermines the collective goal of digital sovereignty.

The huge growth potential of the BRICS digital landscape hinges not on isolated national upgrades, but on coordinated integration — building direct fiber links and shared cloud facilities among member states to bypass external choke points and turn internal diversity into complementarity advantages.

The domestic fiber-optic backbone and international connectivity layer represent a strategic shift in the BRICS digital infrastructure. Rather than reducing dependence on global internet routes — a practical impossibility given the nature of cross-border data flows — these investments enhance digital sovereignty by diversifying pathways and reducing reliance on third-party-controlled infrastructure. By building and controlling their own submarine cables and terrestrial links, BRICS countries gain greater routing autonomy, improved resilience against geopolitical disruptions, and the capacity to handle their vast internal data flows without being subject to the latency and surveillance risks of traditional transit hubs.

In this context, the Digital Silk Road, officially launched by China in 2017, can play a crucial role in bridging the gaps. Compared to the rent-seeking Western models, which are many times more expensive and thus not affordable to the majority of the population and companies in the Global South, the Digital Silk Road is contributing to the liberalization of digital services so that the whole population can get access to digital services at an affordable price. It can create a seamless, cross-border digital ecosystem linking China with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Africa and Europe. This can reduce trade costs, expand e-commerce and spread advanced tech.

Equally important, for many nations, the Digital Silk Road is a chance to bypass a digital landscape dominated by the big Western tech companies and their leverage in global tech governance, breaking monopolies by providing alternatives to the United States' cloud giants, which control nearly two-thirds of the market. The Digital Silk Road focuses on building key digital infrastructure, including submarine and land-based fiber-optic cables such as the Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe, 5G networks where Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE are world leaders, data centers and cloud services led by Alibaba Cloud and Tencent, e-commerce and digital payment systems such as Alipay, smart city technologies, and AI and satellite navigation as in a Beidou-supported alternative to GPS.

The Digital Silk Road is more than a concept; it is already shaping global tech, trade and internet governance. Members of the BRICS have already benefited from it, and many nations in Africa are leapfrogging in terms of telecom and internet coverage and digital services, such as digital payment systems in the continent where access to banking services is very limited. At the governance level, the Digital Silk Road promotes a state-centric, shared model of internet governance and cyber sovereignty, which contrasts sharply with Western private and proprietary approaches.

The Digital Silk Road represents an alternative model of international cooperation on global digital infrastructure development. Under this framework of cooperation, nations are equipped to negotiate the terms of technical training, capacity building and joint innovation that reflect a balanced, long-term commitment. Ultimately, the vision of the Digital Silk Road aligns closely with the broader aspirations of the Global South and multilateral forums such as the BRICS to cultivate a more equitable and inclusive digital order. By facilitating the co-development of secure, interconnected and sovereign digital infrastructure, the initiative supports a future where technological progress and governance are equally shared, contributing to a more balanced and resilient global digital ecosystem.

The author is the vice-dean of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.