China has sought to paint its Digital Silk Road as a harmless project to build digital infrastructure and expand connectivity, hiding its true intentions of turning its authoritarian model of digital governance into an alternative to the rights-based approach to the internet. China is undermining civil liberties abroad and more must be done to protect populations from this malicious interference.
The West has all too often focused on surveillance and espionage when it comes to Chinese projects, so it isn't surprising that one of its publicly funded, so-called non-governmental organizations has purposefully neglected to acknowledge how the Digital Silk Road benefits the Global South. Instead of whining, the West should join Beijing in helping developing countries.