"China is reversing the commonly held vision of technology as a great democratizer"

I think it's near impossible to broach the topic without bringing in worldview & speculation, but..

Lets take a look at why that notion of democratizing technology existed in the first place. I think there are a few dispirate ones.

First, there is the adoption curve many recent "technologies." Penicilin & uimunization, paved roads & electricity... These technologies took generations before they reached 50% of the population, and are only now approaching the "last mile" phase.

Mobile phones, celular internet, facebook, google, digital money... these reached third world farmers fast, anywehre from a a couple of decades to a couple of years. That is democracratic in the "everyone gets it." sense

Another definiton is a sort of capitalist/liberal one. The internet was a democratic latform in terms of economic opportunity. Internet age companies were mostly newly founded ones. The wins did not go to pre-existing companies, leveraging their preexisting size and power. Rather, tiny newcomers managed to compete and win against large established companies. The proverbial "guys in the basement" taking on billion $ companies. This wil seem democratic, to those with a certain worldview.

It's hard to say this has stopped, but it is certainly different. The new generation of internet companeis are the current oligopolies, even oligarchies. Cellular internet is reaching people without mains electricity, but often the internet consists of just FB, who have basically purchased an exclusive monopoly.

Last (and probably most important) is freedom of information, citizen journalisand other related aspects of democracy that communication technology advanced. If you want to criticise a regime, no one can stop you.

These democratizing features land squarely in the middle of the liberal worldview, and excite all sorts of grand expectations. Freedom of thought, speech, press, conscience, association.... The rights of man and the basis of a free society & liberal democracy, free market or otherwise.

I think liberals (including me) believed that a free infromation would be a blow to despotry. This, I think, has proved false. These freedoms (in practice, but not theory) don't seem to lead to anything in particular.

Disilussionment is ongoing. We have twitter mobs, clickbait, fake news, paid trolls and info bubbles... Facebook controls the media people get, and the data that makes this useful. Centralisation is worse than before. Exclusive access to data is becoming a force to be reckoned with, and all the power naturally flows to the largest companies.

Despots needed to adapt, but those who do end up even more powerful than before. Take Russia, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia as examples. It's true that they can't control information anymore. If you want to read an article painting the leader in bad light, you can. But, they can influence what most people hear. They can censor sites, and 90% of people won't bother finding workarounds. They can troll opposition views, and make any issue seem like an open debate.

The game is no longer about locking out competing politics. It's about winning public opinion in an uneven debate, with tools at your disposal that the opposition does not have. Instead of a "tank vs knife" dynamic with their opposition, they've had to settle on a "gun vs knife" dynamic. It keeps them sharp, but doesn't really threaten regime stability.

My conclusion is the old banal cliche. Regardless of the starting point, technology is what people do with it. A technology is neither despotic or democratic.