In October 2023, at the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China’s leader Xi Jinping signalled his intention to focus away from the more grandiose legacy projects of the Belt and Road Initiative in favour of ‘small yet smart’ projects. This acknowledgement of Party priorities reiterates the need to better understand the scope of China’s global ambitions to reshape digital governance – away from an open, free and interoperable internet, in favour of a model based on government control and mass surveillance.
