China's State-Private Globalization Model: Public-Private Partnerships as Coupling Mechanisms in AI and ICT Diplomacy Across the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, and Iran

China's distinctive party-state capitalism increasingly shapes global digital infrastructure, yet existing scholarship under-theorizes how public-private partnerships (PPPs) mediate between Chinese state strategy and private technological capacity in host countries. This article reconceptualizes PPPs as dynamic coupling mechanisms rather than static contracts and develops a four-mode typology to analyze China's AI and ICT diplomacy across the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on comparative case studies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, and Iran, it identifies four PPP coupling modes: Trojan Riding (discrete Chinese integration within host-led initiatives), Mosaic Partnering (multipolar vendor arrangements balancing Chinese and Western providers), Fortress Governance (systematic exclusion of Chinese firms from sovereign cores) and Phoenix Substitution (Chinese vendors filling gaps created by geopolitical constraints). The analysis shows that host states act as strategic architects of digital re-globalization, orchestrating "curated globalization" that aligns sovereignty preservation with development goals. Empirically, the UAE's shift from Huawei-G42 collaboration to Microsoft investment illustrates adaptive recalibration, while Iran's sanctions-driven reliance on Chinese infrastructure demonstrates constrained substitution. The article advances PPP scholarship in digital governance, foregrounds host-state mediation in Chinese technological globalization, and proposes adaptive governance frameworks for managing technological sovereignty under great-power competition.