From Belt and Road to Bits and Bytes: China’s Use of Emerging Technologies to Exercise Influence in Peru
Abstract
This article examines how China leverages open-source technologies and digital infrastructure as instruments of statecraft in Peru, advancing strategic influence through gray zone operations without conventional force projection. Through the global deployment of AI platforms like DeepSeek and large-scale local projects such as the Chancay port, China is shaping Peru’s technological ecosystem while undermining its digital sovereignty.
DeepSeek AI’s widespread app launch on January 10, 2025, turned the global artificial intelligence (AI) market on its head, especially given its ability to compete with Western-developed AIs like OpenAI for a fraction of the cost and energy. DeepSeek’s launch and subsequent popularity highlight how Chinese innovators have leveraged open-source technologies, while also enabling the spread of Chinese biases on a global scale.
Two months prior, on November 14, 2024, President Xi Jinping and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte inaugurated the $3.5 billion Chancay deepwater port complex, the latest project in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Located roughly 75 kilometers north of Peru’s capital city of Lima, Port Chancay is projected to reduce shipping times between South America and Asia by 10-20 days, boosting trans-Pacific trade.
While tangentially unrelated on their face, the launch of DeepSeek and the unveiling of Port Chancay exemplify China’s usage of emerging technologies to share its global vision. This article examines how China’s digital engagements in Peru represent a form of gray-zone statecraft via open-source technologies, AI, and telecommunications infrastructure to erode local technological autonomy and advance geopolitical interests without the use of force.
China’s Emerging Technologies: Prioritizing Open-Source Growth
Leveraging its strong manufacturing roots, China has developed its digital society at breakneck speed. Factors like being a mobile-first society, having high levels of bank account ownership, as well as being extremely digitally literate, as seen in China, which consists of nearly 50% of all global e-commerce transactions, have positioned the Chinese population for even greater leaps in digital growth. Open-source technologies provide two key strategic benefits: they reduce dependence on Western digital ecosystems and simultaneously potentially allow the influence of global narratives.
The Rise of Open-Source in China
Chinese enterprises value open-source technologies because they offer greater flexibility, cost efficiency, and control over homegrown digital infrastructure. Open-source solutions enable Chinese companies and the government to innovate without strict foreign dependencies, while still being able to tap into the external ecosystem for support. The Chinese government is especially supportive of open-source technologies to boost domestic innovation, particularly in emerging fields like blockchain, AI, and software development.
Chinese Corporations and Citizens Are Developing in the Open-Source Ecosystem
Private Chinese institutions, alongside individual Chinese citizens, have created large open-source ecosystems within China. Within the field of emerging technologies, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), run by Red Date Technology, relies on the FISCO-BCOS (Be Credible, Open & Secure) platform, which is a Chinese-developed open-source consortium blockchain founded by Chinese powerhouses including Tencent, Shenzhen Securities Communication, and many others. To that extent, Chinese tech giant Huawei announced its self-developed HarmonyOS NEXT in October 2024, with HarmonyOS currently standing as the second-largest mobile operating system within the Chinese market. This followed news from just a month earlier, highlighting Alibaba’s launch of over 100 open-source AI tools, highlighting Chinese company participation in the ever-growing open-source world.
Individual Chinese developers have also been significant contributors to the international and domestic open-source communities, with some notable examples including “vuejs/vue”, a JavaScript framework for building user interfaces with over 30,000 forks, OpenResty, a web platform that enables developers to build web applications, and APIs, among other things, as well as KubeEdge, which enables the open-source Kubernetes system to be used in edge computing.
The Chinese Government’s Support of Open-Source Growth
The Chinese government has been very supportive of open-source development. For one, May 2024 saw the announcement of the Chinese non-profit OpenAtom Foundation, looking to develop open-source software specific to military applications. This was built upon previous Chinese support of open-source initiatives, with the phrase “open-source” being directly used in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan in early 2021, which specifically called for “digital technology open source communities,” among other initiatives. This builds upon momentum from specific state ministries wanting to propel open-source innovation in China, with one good example being China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) publishing literature supporting open-source AI software development in mid-2018.
China’s desire to leverage open-source technologies dates back to the 1990s, with a copy of the open-source Linux software, known in China as Linx, being primarily utilized since then for government-specific software. China even has a domestic version of GitHub known as Gitee AI, with this approach attempting to capture developers from the globally popular GitHub to the domestically approved Gitee AI.
Open-Source Growth in China
China has rapidly developed its digital society, prioritizing open-source technologies through private and public initiatives. These initiatives enable China to project its worldview onto the globe. For example, DeepSeek insists that Taiwan is a part of China, while also providing similarly biased perspectives about the Chinese government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
With this in mind, it is quite evident that China’s desire to utilize open-source technologies is born out of a desire to promote homegrown domestic innovation while fostering its vision upon the world. The Chinese government has incentivized this work through its legislation and initiatives. spurring tech giants like Red Date, Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei, alongside individual developers, to contribute to a thriving open-source ecosystem.
China’s Use of Open-Source Emerging Technologies in Peru
Majority owned by a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), Cosco Shipping Ports Limited, the Chancay port bears a strikingly similar resemblance to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota International Port and Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport. In the case of Port Chancay, its smart management systems, AI port optimization layer, and telecommunications integrations represent the physical manifestation of digital dependency. In parallel with the examples in Sri Lanka and Uganda, Port Chancay may become a strategic level for Chinese influence over national decision-making.
This strategic approach mirrors broader concerns over digital sovereignty, which is defined by the World Economic Forum as “the ability to have control over your own digital destiny – the data, hardware, and software that you rely on and create.” In Peru, dependence on physical and digital Chinese infrastructure has created a layer of vulnerability.
The Consequences of Chinese Open-Source Software in Peru
China’s use of open-source software in Peru could significantly threaten the country’s digital sovereignty by creating a reliance on Chinese-developed technologies that are inherently influenced by China’s political and ideological interests. As Chinese companies like Huawei and Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation, more commonly known as ZTE, deploy their open-source solutions in AI, telecommunications, and other country-critical platforms in crucial sectors like mining, infrastructure, and telecommunications, Peru risks becoming dependent on Chinese technologies for its digital infrastructure.
This dependency could challenge Peru’s digital infrastructure sovereignty, posing a problem for Peru to not only independently manage and secure its digital infrastructure, but also expose its key digital systems to Chinese influence through these open-source platforms. Such control over Peru’s technological landscape compromises its autonomy, leaving the country vulnerable to external manipulation and reducing its ability to safeguard its own digital future.
Existing Chinese Influence in Peru Through Emerging Technologies
On the digital asset front, a pilot of the digital sol, Peru’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), was launched in August 2024, via a partnership with Viettel Peru, the local subsidiary of Vietnam’s Viettel Group, itself a SOE administered under Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense. Despite some previous rivalries, the Viettel Group has a history of working closely with Chinese government entities on cross-border initiatives. Some notable examples include the recent Viettel Logistics Park development, a 5G partnership and bi-lateral participation in the Hand-in-Hand Program run by China Mobile, a Viettel entity working with Chinese entities to establish a money transfer service between Vietnam and China, joint workshops between Viettel and China Telecom, and previous cross-border telecommunications development and cooperation between Viettel and ZTE.
China’s influence in artificial intelligence (AI) specific to Peru is another emerging technology where Peruvian digital sovereignty is at risk. Peru has emphasized using AI to help bolster the economic and social development of the country, proposing a draft legislation to this effect in May 2024. Chinese technology providers have been leading Peruvian AI development. In fact, Port Chancay itself highlights how Chinese-provided AI is being used “for efficient management between yard and dock, security, and productivity of port management.” Chinese state-owned enterprises have also significantly invested in Peru’s mining infrastructure, integrating AI in operations like those in Peru’s flagship Las Bambas mine to optimize operations and improve output efficiency. Additionally, a recent joint statement highlighted both nations’ desire to develop artificial intelligence capacities, with this being unveiled just several months after an enhanced Huawei deal to train Peruvians on AI was announced, building upon previous Huawei-led cooperation efforts.
Telecommunications is another sector that is heavily dependent on Chinese technologies. Most recently, in January 2025, Chinese government-owned ZTE and Bitel (a Viettel subsidiary) announced a partnership to improve Peru’s telecommunications sector, implementing Chinese-made hardware to enhance 4G LTE service in anticipation of further 5G deployment. Previously, July 2024 saw leading mobile operator Entel Peru completing the first commercial use of dual-band AAU on a 5G network, the first implementation of this technology outside of China, highlighting impending 5G growth and development in Peru via Chinese technologies.
Chinese technology providers have also been a significant influence in Peru’s cloud services sector. ZTE highlighted a partnership with top Peruvian service provider MiFibra to commercialize ZTE’s Smart Cloud Platform in Peru in December 2024. Huawei Cloud has also played a huge role in providing services to Peru, with a 150% year-on-year increase in customer base in 2023, with China Telecom also developing IP backbone infrastructure in Peru for 5G, cloud, and other digital services.
China’s influence in Peru’s emerging technologies is clearly growing, specifically in the digital assets, AI, and telecommunications realms. Chinese platforms are now deeply embedded, driven by cost efficiency, turnkey solutions, and favorable financing.
Existing trade ties between China and Peru
Peru’s economy already has a growing dependency on China, with China being Peru’s largest trading partner and largest export market for the past several years. Exports to China account for over 35% of all Peruvian total exports, with these goods consisting mainly of raw materials, primarily iron and copper ores. In return, Peru imports Chinese-manufactured emerging technology products.
China-Peru Politics
The Chinese relationship with Peru on the political front is a strong one, primarily due to the economic ties forged by both sides, ranging from direct Chinese investment into Peruvian natural resource mining in the 1990s to Peru joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2019. This influence will only continue to grow, with Peru and China signing an amplified free-trade agreement in November 2024 during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Peru during the 2024 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum 2024. This agreement highlights AI cooperation and digital inclusivity. With this in mind, Peru has wholeheartedly embraced China on the political front, most recently “shunning” Taiwan by mistakenly labeling Taiwan as “China Taipei” and removing Taiwan-focused advertisements in Lima, Peru, during the 2024 APEC Forum.
This shift in diplomatic messaging is to align with Beijing’s stance on Taiwan, signaling an alignment on both political and ideological fronts, in addition to existing ties in the economic realm.
Conclusion
Peru’s evolving digital ecosystem is a microcosm of broader China’s ambitions in the Global South. By offering subsidized, open-source digital platforms and infrastructure, China is simultaneously supporting current development while also ensuring long-term dependencies, particularly on the digital front. This fusion of economic incentives, infrastructure projects, and digital tools enables China to operate in the gray zone, one that exists below the threshold of conflict yet is impactful enough to erode national autonomy. While not overtly coercive, this approach shapes norms, alters governance models, and undermines sovereignty through technology transfer and standard setting.
The dual developments of DeepSeek AI’s launch and Port Chancay’s inauguration highlight China’s strategic use of open-source and emerging technologies as instruments of influence. In Peru, this influence permeates into infrastructure, telecommunications, AI, and digital governance. As Chinese digital systems become embedded in Peruvian institutions, Peruvians are faced with the challenge of maintaining digital sovereignty in an era where state-sponsored technology exports are vectors of influence. This presents an interesting conundrum for governments that must account for these tools of modern statecraft.
Therefore, in regions where conventional force-on-force conflict is unlikely, open-source platforms, AI ecosystems, and telecom infrastructure represent the new frontline of strategic competition.
