Emergence of China's Smart State

Rogier Creemers is a lecturer in modern Chinese studies at Leiden University. His research focuses on Chinese domestic digital technology policy, as well as China's growing importance in global digital affairs. He is the principal investigator of the NWO Vidi Project "The Smart State: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Law in China". For the Leiden Asia Centre, he directs a project on China and global cybersecurity, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also a co-founder of DigiChina, a joint initiative with Stanford University and New America.Straton Papagianneas is a PhD candidate at Leiden University for Area Studies (LIAS). His PhD project will evaluate the role of smart systems in the post-4th Plenum legal reform agenda. This agenda intends to enhance the professionalization of courts and law enforcement bodies, strengthen courts’ autonomy from local governments, broaden access to justice, and give priority to formal litigation. Adam Knight is a PhD candidate at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) where he focuses on the design, implementation, and consequences of the Chinese social credit system. He is a regular media commentator as well as speaker on the topic of smart governance and internet policy in China.

This excellent compilation of essays on a complex topic, how the government guides development of the digital economy and how it has evolved, is a breath of fresh air and adds a much-needed facts-based and non-ideological corpus of understanding to our knowledge of this important topic. The book is free from some of the ideological spin of recent efforts to track and describe particularly the role of government in driving China’s rise as a technology power. The authors all appear to have first-hand and fresh knowledge of their subject areas, and avoid relying on second and third hand sources in ways that can sometimes become an echo chamber of analysis of China and technology in the age of highly geopolitically charged US-China technology competition. Well done all around.

• Introduction by Rogier CreemersPart I: Digital Concepts and InstitutionsChapter 1: The Cyberspace Administration of China: A Portrait by Jamie Horsley and Rogier CreemersChapter 2: The Stumbling Smart State: Fragmented Policy Experimentation & Dubious Consolidation by Straton Papagianneas & Adam KnightPart II: Strategic Emerging TechnologiesChapter 3: China’s Industrial Policy for Semiconductors by John LeeChapter 4: Fintech in China: Trading off Growth and Risk, Innovation and Control by Martin ChorzempaPart III: International Engagement and ConfrontationChapter 5: China: A Technical Standardisation Power? by Tim RühligChapter 6: China and Global Data Transfers: Implications for Future Rulemaking by Hunter DorwartChapter 7: China and Global Internet Governance: ITU, ICANN and the World Internet Conference by Gianluigi NegroChapter 8: Becoming a Cyber Superpower: China Builds Offensive Capability with Military, Government and Private Sector Forces by Mei DanowskiPart IV: Local Dynamics