Post-Socialist Imaginaries of the Digital Third Front: The Case of Guizhou-Cloud Big Data

Abstract

This article theorizes the politics and poetics of data infrastructure through an examination of Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD), the state-owned enterprise that landed the deal with Apple to build its first data center in China. I deploy the concept of “post-socialist imaginaries” to analyze how Guizhou, an economically lagging province, has positioned itself as a strategic hub for big data and cloud computing. The “politics” refers to the development policies promoting digital innovation as an engine of growth, while the “poetics” involves the discursive framing of big data through fantasies and desires. The qualifier “post-socialist” highlights the coexistence of multiple temporalities beyond linear developmentalism. By probing this peculiar case, the article aims to generate insights into how data infrastructures are being institutionally reconfigured in China vis-a-vis its modernization trajectory and divergent conditions compared to Western contexts. It calls for alternative theoretical frameworks to unpack the materiality and spatiality of data at the current conjuncture.