The PR Veneer of 'Digital Empowerment'
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
China's push to export AI training and digital literacy for women masks a broader pattern of systemic tech control.
Opinion: When a superpower begins framing its technological exports as a benevolent tool for 'empowerment,' it is time to look closer at the architecture of that power.
As the Financial Post first reported, CGTN recently highlighted China's efforts to use digital technology to advance gender equality and bridge the gender digital divide. The narrative is polished: it features Peng Liyuan, a UNESCO special envoy and wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling for the international community to expand intelligent education and vocational training for women.
On the surface, the metrics are designed to impress. The Financial Post notes that in 2024, 42.3% of the annual total of vocational skills certificates for AI trainers were obtained by women, totaling 14,147 individuals. The reporting further claims that women make up over half of the entrepreneurs in China's internet sector and roughly one-third of the workforce in e-commerce, digital trade, and livestreaming.
But these figures serve a specific purpose: they position China as a leader for the Global South. The Financial Post reports on a June 2026 training program in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, where 51 women from 10 different countries—including Saba Aliyeva from Azerbaijan—were trained in AI and digital entrepreneurship.
This is the 'digital empowerment' play. By focusing on the individual success of a participant learning AI photo editing, the narrative shifts away from the systemic surveillance and exclusion that typically accompany the export of Chinese tech infrastructure. The goal is to frame AI as a tool for 'all-round development,' as Peng Liyuan suggested in her video address to the 2026 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education award ceremony.
There is a clear financial incentive driving this push. The Financial Post cites research from the International Finance Corporation indicating that increasing female participation in e-commerce across Southeast Asia and Africa could generate more than $300 billion in revenue between 2025 and 2030.
By embedding its digital literacy and rural development initiatives into the fabric of developing economies, China isn't just 'bridging a divide.' It is establishing the standards, the platforms, and the surveillance capabilities that will govern those markets. The 'empowerment' is the hook; the infrastructure is the trap.