Dictators, political parties, and elites who have come to depend upon advanced Chinese technology to control their populations may also begin to feel some obligation to align themselves with China politically, or maybe even the necessity to do so, in order to stay in power. The more China can “bring other countries’ models of governance into line with China’s own,” argues Steven Feldstein, an expert in digital technology, “the less those countries pose a threat to Chinese hegemony.”
