Via Reconnecting Asia, an article on China’s digital Silk Road (maps in original article):

The Digital Silk Road is the technology dimension of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s Jinping’s vision for moving China closer to the center of everything. As the maps below illustrate, it is advancing several areas: wireless networks, surveillance cameras, subsea cables, and satellites. While not exhaustive of China’s digital activities, these activities literally stretch from the ocean floor to outer space, and they enable AI, big data applications, and other strategic technologies. In all four areas, China is gaining globally and positioning itself to reap commercial and strategic rewards, especially as emerging economies grow.

The Digital Divide

The developing world is still coming online, with more than half of humanity having limited or no access to the internet. During the 1990s and 2000s, as U.S. companies focused primarily on larger, wealthier markets, Chinese providers began serving lower-income and rural markets: Russia, Kenya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, and even rural America. Today, even as Chinese tech companies face more scrutiny in advanced economies, they are doubling down in emerging markets, where the majority of the world’s population growth is expected and affordability often trumps security concerns.

Hikvision Surveillance Cameras

Having grown rapidly at home, China’s surveillance giants aim to dominate global markets. Together, Hikvision (cameras displayed above) and Dahua supply nearly 40 percent of the world’s surveillance cameras. Only China has companies that are competitive at every step of the surveillance process, from manufacturing cameras to training AI to deploying the analytics. Chinese surveillance technology is being used in more than eighty countries, on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

Chinese Subsea Cables

China has graduated from being dependent on foreign companies for subsea cables, which carry over 95 percent of the world’s international data, to controlling the world’s fourth major provider of these systems. Before being sold to Hengtong Group in 2020, Huawei Marine (a joint venture between Huawei and Global Marine, a U.K. firm) laid enough cable to circle the earth, including transcontinental links from Asia to Africa and from Africa to South America. These connections avoid U.S. and allied territory and could become even more valuable during a conflict.

China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

Completed in 2020, China’s BeiDou system is more accurate than GPS in the Asia-Pacific region and slightly less accurate globally. BeiDou powers a growing list of vehicles, farm equipment, phones, and other consumer products and offers even more powerful services that guide Chinese missiles, fighter jets, and naval vessels. Beijing has begun offering these military-grade services to partners and could use them as a sweetener in the future when selling arms. Strategically, China is reducing its reliance on GPS and increasing the world’s reliance on BeiDou.