Description
The Digital Silk Road (DSR) has emerged as a critical component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. According to the press release of the Chinese government, China has signed a memorandum of understanding with 16 countries, agreeing to strengthen their cooperation to build the DSR. Whilst much of the attention has been given to the definition, rationale, and implications of the DSR, some have called for critical perspectives to investigate the development of the DSR (e.g. who was involved and in what way). Drawing on the concept of assemblage, this article conceptualises the DSR as an assemblage of humans and non-humans, and examines the ways the DSR unfolds within and across scales. Throughout, the article highlights the heterogeneity of the DSR and pays special attention to the agency of three ‘actants’ of the DSR: submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic cables, cellular networks, and satellite systems. This assemblage approach might contribute to critical perspectives on how power circulates in the emerging process of the DSR, and how materials (not simply the Chinese state) constitute a digital world order.
