China's Digital Silk Road

18 January 13:00-14:00 (new time)
Virtual lunch talk by Erik Baark, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen.

The ambitions of the Belt and Road Initiative, when it was launched in 2013, were closely related to President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream vision – to return China to its historical role as the centre of the world. In 2015, the “Digital Silk Road” (DSR) was launched to cover a broad range of digitalization along the Belt and Road, including cross-border e-commerce, data rules and security, digital healthcare and online education. The exports to DSR countries of optical fiber communications, 5G mobile phone networks, cloud computing facilities, and various types of surveillance equipment with features such as face recognition, create useful opportunities for China to install advanced technology abroad and to gain “soft power” prestige by assisting countries in reducing the impact of COVID-19. This strategy is underpinned by Chinese efforts to influence the formulation and adoption of international technical standards. The Chinese government aims to transform the country from a “standards taker'” to a “standards maker'' through the development of unique Chinese technology standards, made explicit by the China Standards 2035 Strategy launched in 2020.

Erik Baark (PhD, Dr. phil) is a NIAS Associate and Professor Emeritus at the Division of Social Science and the Division of Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. His primary research interests are related to innovation systems and science and technology policy in China and other East Asian countries.

This is a virtual event. Sign up here to receive Zoom link

The format is 20-30 minutes presentation followed by discussion.