Experts are warning that China’s recently launched Global Governance Initiative (GGI) represents a threat to developing nations by promoting authoritarianism through digital surveillance and repression.
The adoption of “techno-authoritarianism,” defined as the use of digital information technology by governments to surveil, repress, and manipulate populations, poses significant risks to African nations, primarily by undermining democratic processes, human rights and long-term political stability.
Retired Col. DCS Mayal, a former intelligence officer in the Indian Army, noted a severe lack of transparency that pervades China’s governance model, saying that the initiative transforms soft power into “invisible sharp edges.”
“GGI strategies cultivate Global South dependencies, implant pervasive intelligence networks, and normalise Chinese norms,” he wrote in an April 13 brief for the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
He added: “Beijing promotes norms that legitimise state-level surveillance infrastructure, while positioning Chinese technological standards as globally accepted models.”
As a policy framework, China’s new initiative seeks to restructure international affairs in its favor by attempting to change multilateral international institutions like the United Nations. However, experts say its goal is to replace global structures with a China-centric model that prioritizes the ruling regime’s power over established African democratic norms.
The initiative is one of four that China has introduced since 2021, covering key sectors such as development, security and culture. But Mayal calls governance “the newest layer in a broader project to reshape the international order in ways that favour Chinese power, norms and interests.”
China has provided significant infrastructure funding on the continent in recent years, but many African nations are struggling with enormous loan repayments. Politicians in some countries, such as Kenya and Angola, have expressed concern that China has created financial dependency and potentially could seize strategic assets in their countries. The security governance models that China pushes also have raised concerns that they undermine the principle of an apolitical military and seek to empowerauthoritarian-leaning ruling parties on the continent.
“By using the military to decimate the opposition, ruling parties in some sub-Saharan African countries have effectively created one-party states,” Africa-China blogger Amodani Gariba told The Africa Center for Strategic Studies in 2025. “Though the economic cooperation China has with Africa has had a tremendous impact on Africans, China’s ambitions to extend its ties into military cooperation could worsen the already bad governance situation on the continent.”
Samir Bhattacharya, an associate fellow at the foundation, has said that his research focuses on how China influences African governance by exporting its authoritarian model.
“China’s distinct approach is characterised by state-led investment aimed at industrialisation and rapid growth, along with a governance model that often prioritises economic performance over democratic institutions,” he wrote in a 2025 article for the East Asia Forum website. “Through investments in key sectors such as African media, China subtly encourages recipient countries to adopt Chinese norms and governance models.”
Echoing Mayal’s concerns, Bhattacharya said that African countries would be wise to see through China’s flashy promotion of these initiatives and analyze them closely for Beijing’s hidden agenda, which often is in conflict with the sovereignty and democratic values of African nations.