Has China stolen Africa’s internet?

By Gerald Mbanda

There have been stories circulating in sections of western media claiming that China has stolen Africa’s internet. The latest was published by Lapresse of US with a title, “Who stole Africa’s internet domain names? Fingers point to China” (October 1, 2021).  The stories allege that Millions of internet addresses assigned to Africa have been waylaid, some fraudulently, including through insider machinations linked to a former top employee of the nonprofit organization called AFRINIC.  The entity- AFRICHIN which is based in Mauritius is responsible for assigning the continent’s addresses. “Instead of serving Africa’s internet development, many have benefited spammers and scammers, while others satiate Chinese appetites for pornography and gambling,” the stories read. 

Again, such stories that are intended to create a bad image of China involvement in Africa, equate the alleged internet (digital resources) theft to other African resources like gold, diamonds and even people, which outsiders have long profited from Africa. This probably is in reference to colonialism and slave trade in Africa, the vices of which the west and not China is known to be part of the history. The African continent has been allocated only 3% of the world’s first-generation internet Protocol (IP) addresses, a figure considered insignificant for a population of more than 1.3 billion people. AFRINIC based in Mauritius, serves as the custodian of Africa’s IP addresses and responsible for their allocation. 

How does China as a country be blamed by western media for ‘stealing’ Africa’s internet? It is ironical that the name of China as a country is dragged in the stories when the dispute of the IP addresses in a court case which has been going on for years in Mauritius only mentions a businessman by the names of Lu Hengreferred to in the stories as, “a deep-pocketed Chinese businessman.” In the ongoing court case in Mauritiusbetween Lu Heng and AFRICHIN, available information says that the businessman “under contested circumstances, obtained 6.2million African addresses from 2013-2016. That’s about 5% of the continent’s total- more than Kenya has.” 

What is known also according to documents of the case, is that the millions of AFRICHIN IP addresses “claimed to have been stolen by China” were acquired by Mr. Lu Heng through   a top official of AFRICHIN known as Mr. Arnest Byaruhanga, implying that it was a clear legal deal, in terms of transparency, and not “stolen” as claimed. Byaruhanga was later fired from AFRICHIN in 2019.   There is also no indication whatsoever, that Lu Heng is a Chinese government agent to warrant conclusions by western media that China has stolen Africa’s IP addresses.  

Mr. Lu Heng, on his part told media sources that he broke no rules in obtaining the African address blocks and he was free to decide where to use the IP addresses. However, this is for the court in Mauritius to determine the transferability of the IP addresses out of the African continent in accordance with AFRICHIN guidelines and to pronounce Mr. Lu Heng guilty or not guilty. Mr. Lu Heng is a businessman who does not in any way represent the interest of China as a country. 

Western media claims that China has stolen Africa’s internet is therefore, baseless and part of the persistent malicious slander of China’s image in Africa. This is similar to other stories published in western media in the past. Reuters story for example, of (Dec. 16, 2020)by Raphael Satter in Washington titled, “Exclusive-Suspected Chinese hackers stole camera footage from African Union – memo,” the Le Monde Afrique, aFrench publication story of (January 26, 2018), titled,“A Addis-Abeba, le siège de l’Union africaineespionné par Pékin,”claiming the China spied on the African Union headquarters in a story titled, are just a few examples of western media propaganda aimed at tarnishing the image of China in Africa. 

If African governments and media have not complained about the alleged theft of internet by China, why should the noise come from the west?  What is evident in the western media coverage on China and Africa is that there seem to be a persistent and coordinated campaign to destroy the prevailing good China- Africa relations. Will this dirty game work for the west? I highly doubt. China-Africa relationship is based on mutual trust and friendship manifested by concrete actions which speak louder than mere words. 

Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa. 

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