I. Iran, China, and the Global Data Network My goal in this essay is to investigate the role of Iran in China’s ‘Digital Silk Road’, which is the digital version of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The story of Sino-Iranian tech cooperation must be investigated in the larger context of the geopolitical and geoeconomic roles that the two countries are playing or claiming to play. This is especially crucial since those roles are primarily geared to challenge the global a