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The rise of Chinese-linked criminal actors in Southeast Asia – including cyber scammers running fake online romance schemes for financial extortion – has disrupted traditional narratives of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure investment strategy. Counter to the "romantic" Silk Road imagery the BRI commonly draws on, these activities are forcing a reconfiguration of political and economic realities across the region, shifting attention toward changing practices of digital economy and governance along the BRI. This paper introduces the concept of 'variegated govotolerance' to explain why governments and citizens have (to varying degrees) come to tolerate, regional cybercriminal activity linked to Chinese actors.

Tom Narins is an associate professor of geography, planning, and sustainability at the University at Albany with research interests in the critical geopolitics of China's growing engagement with the global economy.
His current research examines the political and economic tensions associated with “Global China” in terms of both traditional and digital infrastructure, with a special focus on China’s digital expansion across the Global South. As a political and economic geographer, Tom has published on sovereignty issues relating to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as well as on official Chinese lending to BRI-participant countries after the coronavirus pandemic. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as: Geopolitics; Human Geography; Territory, Politics, Governance; The Professional Geographer; Asian Perspective; Area; and The Extractive Industries and Society.

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