Overview

This book examines China’s digital transformation and its complex policy landscape, offering fresh insights into how the world’s second-largest economy navigates the challenges of governing its rapidly evolving digital sector. Through detailed analysis, it reveals the intricate relationship between technological innovation and policy implementation in contemporary China. The book explores critical themes including digital industrial policies, competition policy, data governance, and artificial intelligence development. It introduces two dynamics: the “digital amplification of fragmentation,” which explains how digital technologies intensify existing governance challenges, and the “technology-policy recursive loop,” which describes the interaction between technological advancement and regulatory responses. Using diverse data sources and covering developments such as China’s 2020–2021 regulatory crackdown of major technology firms like Alibaba and Tencent, the book provides a comprehensive examination of China’s unique approach to digital governance. Special attention is paid to pressing issues such as data security, cross-border data flows, and technological self-reliance. An essential read for policymakers, business leaders, and scholars seeking to understand China’s digital economy and its implications for global digital governance. Its accessible analysis offers valuable insights for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, policy, and economic development in contemporary China.

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9781032386584

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Jiwei Qian’s book, Governing China’s Digital Transformation, offers an incisive, up-to-date and comprehensive survey of China’s efforts to guide the growth of the digital economy. Emphasizing the tradeoffs between promotion of rapid technological innovation while preserving state control over the use of data, Qian analyzes the interplay between technological change and regulatory responses in such areas as e-commerce, fintech, smart manufacturing, and AI. Treating digital technology as the main driver of economic growth compounds the old problem of fragmented governance and competing goals. For example, the government has pressed the digital platform giants to develop indigenous “chokepoint” technologies to replace overseas-origin software, while at the same time encouraging them to realize the economic benefits of consumer-facing network technologies. The book will stand as an authoritative study of this hugely important and rapidly developing sector of China’s economy."" - Thomas F. Remington, Professor, Emory University, USA

""Jiwei Qian’s book, Governing China’s Digital Transformation, offers an incisive, up-to-date and comprehensive survey of China’s efforts to guide the growth of the digital economy. Emphasizing the tradeoffs between promotion of rapid technological innovation while preserving state control over the use of data, Qian analyzes the interplay between technological change and regulatory responses in such areas as e-commerce, fintech, smart manufacturing, and AI. Treating digital technology as the main driver of economic growth compounds the old problem of fragmented governance and competing goals. For example, the government has pressed the digital platform giants to develop indigenous “chokepoint” technologies to replace overseas-origin software, while at the same time encouraging them to realize the economic benefits of consumer-facing network technologies. The book will stand as an authoritative study of this hugely important and rapidly developing sector of China’s economy."" - Thomas F. Remington, Professor, Emory University, USA ""This book is a timely and important contribution. Understanding China’s rapid rise as a technological superpower—and the challenges it faces in governing its digital sectors—has become a matter of both urgent policy relevance and scholarly significance as competition for digital and AI supremacy increasingly defines the new frontier of China–US geostrategic rivalry. With comprehensive coverage spanning digital technological change, industrial policy, as well as the regulation of cross-border data flows and artificial intelligence, this book offers both breadth and depth. Dr. Qian provides a sophisticated analysis of China’s industrial and regulatory strategies, showing how digital technologies and state policies co-evolve in shaping the country’s digital economy. This book is essential reading for policymakers, business leaders, and scholars alike. It not only advances our understanding of China’s digital transformation but also underscores its global implications for innovation, regulation, and digital governance."" - Hongzhou Zhang, Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Author Information

Jiwei Qian is Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. He has published widely in leading academic journals, including China Quarterly, Journal of European Social Policy, Journal of Social Policy, Policy and Society, Policy Studies Journal, and Social Science & Medicine.

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