The Chinese surveillance state in Latin America? Evidence from Argentina and Ecuador

Resumen

Western authors fear that Chinese exports of surveillance technologies to Global South countries may lead to reproduction of the problematic surveillance practices that the Chinese state practices within its borders. However, much of this literature is not based on empirically-grounded research. To examine such concerns, we investigated two surveillance projects built in Argentina and Ecuador in cooperation with Chinese enterprises—JSeI in Argentina and ECU 911 in Ecuador. Based on empirical evidence, we argue for a more situated and differentiated approach for examining such projects that considers the distributed agency among local and Chinese actors, as well as the economic, social, and political factors that led to their deployment.