The Digital Silk Road Initiative and the making of a new nomos of the earth: The case of Huawei's Safe City in Johannesburg

Principle Investigator：Lungani Hlongwa

This research focuses on the intersection of digital technologies and geopolitics in the age of the Digital Silk Road Initiative (DSRI) using Huawei's Safe City project in Johannesburg as a case study. According to Huawei, a Safe City is a smart urban area that leverages advanced digital technologies, such as surveillance cameras, AI, IoT, and big data, to enhance urban security and improve emergency responses. However, recent literature on the rise of Chinese surveillance companies along the DSRI underscores various concerns, including the spread of so-called Chinese style "digital authoritarianism," data privacy, and national security vulnerabilities. Drawing from the spatial theories of philosophers Carl Schmitt and Michel Foucault, this study aims to articulate two dimensions of Safe Cities - the geopolitical and the biopolitical. Schmitt's concepts of nomos and spatial revolutions will be juxtaposed against Foucault's micro-level exploration of power, institutions, discourses, and practices. The goal is to unravel how digital space is reshaping our geopolitical realities, altering our global spatial consciousness. This research endeavours to contribute to discourses on the correlation between technology and society within various fields of study, including China-Africa relations, digital geopolitics, and digital cultures.