From Old to New Colonial Dependencies: Public Perceptions of Chinese Surveillance Cameras in Central Asia

Abstract While a growing body of literature examines the role of Chinese surveillance cameras in the technological rivalry between China and the US, relatively little is known about how publics in the Global South perceive and respond to the growing presence of these technologies in their communities. This research note seeks to address this gap through an empirical analysis of 105 individual and 40 focus group interviews conducted with the wider Russian‐speaking urban public in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), and Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in 2022. The study asks, how do urban Central Asians perceive Chinese surveillance cameras in public spaces? The analysis of the interview data, supplemented by recent opinion polling data from the Central Asia Barometer (2022), reveals that Central Asians’ support for Chinese technologies is shaped by two colonial factors: the legacy of Soviet‐era collectivism and state monitoring, and the region's growing economic and technological dependencies on China.