ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

China and the Information Infrastructure of the Global South: Data Inequalities, Sovereignty, and Science Diplomacy under the WMO Framework (1980s–1990s)

• In Event: Shifting Perspectives on Data: Revealing Imbalances in Global Scientific Networks_2

English Abstract

This research examines how China engaged with Global South countries to navigate and partially mitigate international data inequalities in meteorology from the 1980s to the 1990s. In these decades, the increasing commercialization of meteorological data—especially by the United States and Europe—deepened structural disparities in access to meteorological information for many developing countries. Within this shifting landscape, China emerged not primarily as an alternative data provider, but as an intermediary actor attempting to construct a non-Western model of data exchange grounded in technical assistance, training, and low-cost observational technologies. Drawing on archival records, WMO technical reports, and Chinese meteorological documents, this study reconstructs China’s provision of instruments to African and Asian partners, the training of large cohorts of Global South meteorologists at the Beijing WMO Regional Training Centre, and the sharing of non-satellite observational data such as radiosonde measurements and surface-station reports. Rather than eliminating global data asymmetries, these initiatives reveal how China leveraged multilateral and South–South channels to reshape scientific relationships, negotiate its own status within the WMO, and experiment with forms of “data diplomacy” distinct from Western commercial regimes. The article argues that these practices offer an early historical window into the emergence of alternative data infrastructures in the Global South.

Author

• Erchen Bo, Peking University