Bulelani Jili

Dr. Bulelani Jili holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he was a Meta Research PhD Fellow. His research focuses on ICT development, Africa–China relations, cybersecurity, AI governance, and privacy law. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School. He has previously held fellowships at the Atlantic Council; the Harvard Kennedy School, as a Cybersecurity Fellow; the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, as a Google Fellow; the Electronic Privacy Information Center, as a Scholar-in-Residence; and the University of Oxford, as a Research Associate. Dr. Jili’s writing has appeared in Africa Is a Country, Nature, the Financial Times, Asia Policy, The Economist, African Affairs, Theory, Culture & Society, and the Mail & Guardian.

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*"Africanising Chinese surveillance technology", East Asia Forum, May 2025

* "Kenya Must Update its Regulatory Frameworks to Keep Pace with AI", Tech Policy Press, October 2023

* “How India is using digital technology to project power”, The Economist, June 2023

* "African Demand for Chinese Surveillance Technology", China Global South Project, June 2023. 

* "China’s pledge to help Africa overcome climate change lays ground for green investment boom", South China Morning Post, November 2022.

* "Is CISA stretched thin on critical infrastructure?", Politico, October 2022.

* "Human brain cells on a chip make AI breakthrough", Financial Times, January 2022.

* “The Spread of Surveillance Technology in Africa Stirs Security Concerns”, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, December 2020.

* “中国电信网络布局非洲 政治影响力不断扩大”,Voice of America, August 2021.

*  “How does the ‘uniqueness’ of ‘Chinese model’ work in its economy?”, China Global Television Network, CCTV International, October 2017.