The Narrative of the Rise of China and Authoritarianism in the Global South: The Case of Egypt

ABSTRACT

Authoritarian regimes in the Global South diffuse compelling narratives of China, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its development success to reinforce authoritarian practices discursively. A case illustrative of this process is that of Egypt under President Abdul Fatah el-Sisi. An analysis drawing on strategic narrative theory highlights that the el-Sisi regime has been deploying a persuasive narrative on China, its development experience and the BRI to reinforce authoritarianism discursively under the pretext of preserving the state’s sovereignty and achieving progress and the public good. Such a process is called Authoritarian Reinforcement (AR).

KEYWORDS:

• China
• Belt and Road Initiative
• Egypt
• Authoritarian Reinforcement

Acknowledgments

This research would not have been possible without the exceptional support of Oliver Schlumberger at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and Anoush Ehteshami at Durham University. I would also like to thank Marie Gillespie at Open University and Ben O’Loughlin at Royal Holloway, who looked over the transcriptions and answered numerous questions about the theoretical framework, as well as my wife and colleague Juline Beaujouan at Edinburgh University, for her comments and support throughout the writing of this paper. Finally, I am grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful comments.

Notes

¹ To be sure, state media are generally not attractive in the age of social media and talk shows. This is especially true in Egypt, where the rate of illiteracy was at 24.6 per cent in 2019 (Daily News Egypt 2020). However, in this article, I look into whether the el-Sisi government constructs authoritarian ideas and policies discursively. This is why the state media can be the best place to investigate AR.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amjed Rasheed

Amjed Rasheed is a Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science (IPS) at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. He is a Fellow at the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom, and a Senior Researcher at Open Think Tank, Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.