Whoever can better recognize and seize the general trend of digitalization, and better adapt to and lead the developmental direction of new forces of production, will be able to win the new omnidirectional competition for comprehensive national power.
谁能更好认识和把握数字化大势，更好适应和引领新生产力发展方向，谁就能赢得新的全方位综合国力竞争。
“Digital China Wins the Future 数字中国赢在未来,” Outlook Weekly 瞭望, Governance Events Column 治国理政纪事, Issue 2022-08, February 21, 2022
The name of this site, “Digital China Wins The Future,” is drawn from the opening section of the Cyberspace Administration of China’s 2017 “Digital China Development Report,” but the phrase found its origins in the 2016 “Outline of the National Informatization Development Strategy,” which found its origins in a 2013 speech by Xi Jinping. Since 2016, the phrase (as it relates to Digital China) has continued to repeat itself including as recently as February 21, 2022 when it served as the cover story, “Digital China Wins the Future,” for Xinhua’s Outlook Weekly magazine.
All of this reflects that “Winning the Future” is an idiomatic phrase that appears widely in China, both in speaking and writing. Alastair Iain Johnston published an excellent contextual analysis of the phrase’s use in official PRC writing and statements.
When it comes to Digital China, the context is informatization. As the 2016 Outline of the National Informatization Development Strategy stated:
With further developments in world multi-polarization, economic globalization, cultural diversification, and social informatization; and profound change in the global governance system; whoever occupies the high ground of informatization will be able to seize the first opportunity, win the advantage, win security, and win the future.
随着世界多极化、经济全球化、文化多样化、社会信息化深入发展，全球治理体系深刻变革，谁在信息化上占据制高点，谁就能够掌握先机、赢得优势、赢得安全、赢得未来。
Mixed slightly differently with added Xi Jinping metaphors, the 2017 Digital China Development Report stated:
In today’s world, innovation in information technology changes with every passing day. Whoever occupies the high ground of informatization will be able to seize the first opportunity, win the advantage, win security, and win the future. Without informatization there is no modernization.
当今世界，信息技术创新日新月异，谁在信息化上占据制高点，谁就能够掌握先机、赢得优势、赢得安全、赢得未来。没有信息化就没有现代化。
Digging even deeper, in this context “winning the future” points to the central role that Digital China (as the “overall” national strategy for digitalized/informatized reform and development) is expected to play in the Marxist reconstruction of the “forces of production” (combined human productive powers), updating an idea central to historical materialism and tagging a new source for revolutionary change to the current stage of human development. The new Marxist theorem is attributed to Xi Jinping himself. The theorem drives party policy and it is predictive.
For instance, the February 21, 2022 self-described “authoritative” Governance Events column in Xinhua’s Outlook Weekly magazine cleanly summarized the new Chinese-style Marxist thinking on historical materialism:
Whoever can better recognize and seize the general trend of digitalization, and better adapt to and lead the developmental direction of new forces of production, will be able to win the new omnidirectional competition for comprehensive national power.
谁能更好认识和把握数字化大势，更好适应和引领新生产力发展方向，谁就能赢得新的全方位综合国力竞争。
Digital China is, in fact, about winning. Winning the digital age. Not surprising, others are trying to win it too. But Xi Jinping says Chinese style modernization, which rides on the digitalized transformation of socialist modernization, gives China the edge both domestically (by improving societal efficiency and social equity) and globally (by offering a superior alternative to capitalism). As both of these ends, domestic and global, hold the promise of raising living standards to a higher level, they form the bedrock of both an internal and external propaganda narrative that is today quite prominent.
But “winning” is not definitive. The nation must rally behind the Marxist vision of a digital future designed by the party. And the party has set high goals for this vision worthy of a “great power.” One of these is to overcome what Beijing perceives as a hegemonic system of global rules and institutions that are anchored to a previous age. The digital age has opened a door to revise those rules and Digital China seeks to pass through the doorway first.
In short, Digital China is not simply a slogan. Digital China has been tagged as one of the Party’s key strategic initiatives since 2012, and a key national-level strategy since 2017. Perhaps most important, few policies are tied so directly to Xi himself. The strategy has been under development for nearly a quarter century and has been under execution for more than a decade.
Somehow, we missed Digital China. We shouldn’t have.
We need to better understand the Digital China strategy, its goals, its successes and challenges, and the theory and narratives driving it. A better informed understanding will save us time and dispel misunderstanding across and within borders. Most important, it will also move us closer to a focused, unified, and one hopes, effective response to the real challenges we face.
A lightly edited Google Translate machine translation of a Xinhua summary of the much longer Outlook Weekly article, “Digital China Wins the Future” follows:
"Outlook Weekly" published an article: Digital China Wins the Future February 21, 2022 Xinhua Online 《瞭望》刊发文章：数字中国赢在未来 202202/21 新华网 Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 21. On February 21st, the 2022-08 issue of “Outlook Weekly” news magazine published a blockbuster report in the authoritative column “Governance Events” by the journalist Zhang Xinxin titled "Digital China Wins the Future.” An abstract of the article follows: 新华社北京2月21日电 2月21日出版的2022年第8期《瞭望》新闻周刊在权威栏目“治国理政纪事”专栏中刊发了记者张辛欣采写的重磅报道《数字中国赢在未来》。文章摘要如下： Whoever can better recognize and seize the general trend of digitalization, and better adapt to and lead the developmental direction of new forces of production, will be able to win the new omnidirectional competition for comprehensive national power. Currently, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in depth, and our country has entered a new stage of integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy, and the digitalized development of security. 当前，新一轮科技革命和产业变革深入发展，我国进入数字经济与实体经济融合发展、数字化安全发展新阶段。谁能更好认识和把握数字化大势，更好适应和引领新生产力发展方向，谁就能赢得新的全方位综合国力竞争。 Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward a series of strategic, forward-thinking, and creative views on how to understand, use, develop and manage the Internet and how to Build Digital China. [He has] provided fundamental guidance on Digital China and showed the way forward. From the central government to local governments, a series of policy measures have been introduced, building a policy support system that includes both a top-level design and specific measures, and forms a powerful synergy to promote the development of the digital economy. 党的十八大以来，习近平总书记就如何认识、运用、发展、管理互联网，如何建设数字中国等提出了一系列战略性、前瞻性、创造性观点，为数字中国建设提供了根本遵循，指明了前进方向。中央到地方，一系列政策举措出台，构建了既有顶层设计又有具体措施的政策支持体系，形成了推动数字经济发展的强大合力。 Over more than nine years, innovation in core technologies for the information domain has made positive progress, network infrastructure construction has accelerated, informatized services have been popularized, digital technology has continuously created new possibilities, and the world has come to know an entirely new China. 九年多来，信息领域核心技术创新取得积极进展，网络基础设施加快建设，信息化服务得到普及，数字技术不断创造新的可能，世界也因此认识了一个全新的中国。 Mobile payment is widely popularized, and online shopping, online learning, and remote working have become new ways of working and living. New technologies such as the industrial Internet are accelerating their integration with the manufacturing sector. New scenarios, new models, and new forms of business such as collaborative R&D and design, unmanned intelligent inspections, and digital factories are booming. Digital industrialization and industrial digitalization are accelerating, providing a powerful impetus for the sustained and healthy development of the economy and society. 移动支付广泛普及，网络购物、在线学习、远程办公等成为工作生活新方式；工业互联网等新技术与制造业加速融合，协同研发设计、无人智能巡检、数字工厂等新场景、新模式、新业态蓬勃兴起，数字产业化、产业数字化步伐加快，为经济社会持续健康发展提供了强劲动力。 The improvement of information infrastructure has been accelerated, opening the "aorta" for rural areas to access the digital economy era. The Internet penetration rate in rural areas has reached 59.2%, which has doubled compared with the early stage of the 13th Five-Year Plan. Live e-commerce, specialty industries, rural tourism...a large number of digitalized applications are unfolding in rural areas. 信息基础设施加快完善，打通了广大农村接入数字经济时代的“大动脉”。农村互联网普及率达到59.2%，较“十三五”初期翻了一番。直播电商、特色产业、乡村旅游……大量数字化应用在乡村大地展开。 For all of 2021, our country's online retail sales of physical goods reached 10,804.2 billion yuan, an increase of 12.0%, accounting for 24.5% of the total retail sales of consumer goods. Behind China's consecutive years as the world's No. 1 online retail market, there has been an all-encompassing "intelligent reshaping" of consumption, production, and distribution. 2021年全年，我国实物商品网上零售额108042亿元，增长12.0%，占社会消费品零售总额的比重为24.5%。中国连续多年成为全球第一大网络零售市场的背后，是消费、生产、流通等全方位的“智慧重塑”。 Digital technology has enabled the transformation and upgrading of thousands of industries with remarkable results. Especially during the [COVID] epidemic, through digital technology, many small, medium, and micro enterprises looked for opportunities in the "cloud"; and emerging industries such as unmanned delivery and online consumption showed strong potential ... [All] leveraging the rapid "filling" of the new economy to accelerate structural upgrading, and seize the opportunity offered by the rise of the new economy to open new paths. The digital economy has greatly supported the smooth operation of the economy and society, pushing China’s economy to find new opportunities during crisis and open new prospects during change. 数字技术赋能千行百业转型升级成效显著。特别是在疫情期间，通过数字技术，海量中小微企业“云”上寻机；无人配送、在线消费等新兴产业展现强大潜力……借力新经济的快速“补位”加快结构升级，抓住新经济的崛起开辟新路径，数字经济极大支撑了经济社会平稳运行，推动中国经济在危机中育新机、于变局中开新局。 Information technology has added more of a "human touch" to the city: smart medical care and remote consultation have improved the efficiency of treatment and made medical treatment more convenient. Using smart roads, traffic lights, and navigation systems, the digital management of “[traffic] jams” is unfolding. The organic integration of business system reform and the "urban brain" enables more departments to achieve digitalized collaboration in government affairs. During the epidemic prevention and control period, the National Integrated Government Service Platform launched an epidemic prevention health code, which also became an innovative measure to flatten social governance. Seeking guidance from "data" provides a strong impetus for raising the modernization level of the social governance system and governance capabilities. 信息技术为城市增添了更多“人情味”：智慧医疗、远程问诊，提高了救治效率，让看病更加便捷；通过智慧道路、信号灯和导航体系，数字治“堵”的实践正在展开；商事制度改革和“城市大脑”有机结合，让更多部门实现政务数字化协同；疫情防控期间，全国一体化政务服务平台推出防疫健康码，更成为扁平化社会治理的创新举措。问计于“数”，为提升社会治理体系和治理能力现代化水平提供了强大动力。 Today, Digital China is no longer just an economic concept, it has penetrated every aspect of social development. Using digitalization as a lever, China's economic and social development is undergoing profound changes. 如今，数字中国已不仅是经济概念，它已经渗透在社会发展的每个环节。以数字为杠杆，中国的经济社会发展正进行深层次变革。 Looking to the future, China will seize new opportunities in the development of the digital economy, strengthen research on key core technologies, and accelerate the construction of New Type Infrastructure. [We must] make the real economy our focal point and accelerate the in-depth integration of digital technology and industry. [We must] standardize the development of the digital economy, improve the digital economy governance system, and deeply grasp the "Three Benefits" of the healthy development of the digital economy. [We must] clearly discern the trend of development, identify the trend of industry, make up for shortcomings, improve supporting facilities, better regulate the development of the digital economy, and constantly open new prospects for the development of Digital China. 未来，中国将抓住数字经济发展新机遇，加强关键核心技术攻关，加快新型基础设施建设；以实体经济为着力点，加快数字技术与产业深度融合；规范数字经济发展，完善数字经济治理体系，深刻把握数字经济健康发展的“三个有利于”，辨清发展形势，把准产业趋势，补齐短板、完善配套，更好地规范数字经济发展，不断开拓数字中国发展新局面。 Starlight does not disappoint the traveler. Drive high-level integration with reform, and drive digitalized transformation with innovation. Cultivate new momentum with informatization, and use new momentum to promote new development. Continuously open new blue oceans in the digital economy, and continuously steering the steady and long-term development of China's giant economic ship, to create a more convenient and higher-quality life for 1.4 billion Chinese people. 星光不负赶路人。以改革带动高水平融合，以创新驱动数字化转型，以信息化培育新动能，用新动能推动新发展，不断开拓数字经济新蓝海，不断推动中国经济巨轮行稳致远，为14亿多中国人民创造更加便利、更高品质的生活。
A lightly edited Google Translate machine translation of the excerpted opening of the full Outlook Weekly article, “Digital China Wins the Future” follows:
Digital China Wins the Future February 19, 2022 Outlook Weekly “Governance Events” Column 数字中国赢在未来 2022-02/19 瞭望·治国理政纪事 On January 16, 2022, "Qiushi" magazine published an important article by General Secretary Xi Jinping "Continuously Strengthening, Improving, and Expanding Our Country’s Digital Economy", which clarified three benefits for the healthy development of the digital economy – it is conducive to promoting the construction of the New Development Pattern, it is conducive to promoting the construction of a modernized economic system, and it is conducive to promoting the construction of new national competitive advantages. 2022年1月16日，《求是》杂志发表习近平总书记重要文章《不断做强做优做大我国数字经济》，明确了数字经济健康发展的三个有利于——有利于推动构建新发展格局，有利于推动建设现代化经济体系，有利于推动构筑国家竞争新优势。 With the rapid development of new generation information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence; data has become a fundamental strategic resource and a key revolutionary element of the digital era. Whoever can better recognize and seize the general trend of digitalization, and better adapt to and lead the developmental direction of new forces of production, will be able to win the new omnidirectional competition for comprehensive national power. 随着大数据、云计算和人工智能等新一代信息技术的快速发展，数据已成为数字时代的基础性战略资源和革命性关键要素。谁能更好认识和把握数字化大势，更好适应和引领新生产力发展方向，谁就能赢得新的全方位综合国力竞争。 Over more than nine years, the Central Committee has regarded the implementation of Cyber Great Power, implementation of the National Big Data Strategy, and accelerating Building Digital China as major strategies for national development. With digitalization as the lever, China's economic and social development is undergoing profound changes. 九年多来，党中央把实施网络强国、实施国家大数据战略、加快建设数字中国当成举国发展的重大战略。以数字为杠杆，中国的经济社会发展正进行深层次变革。 A single network infrastructure has opened the "aorta" for vast rural areas to access the digital economy era. Currently, the Internet penetration rate in our country’s rural areas has reached 59.2%, which has doubled since the early stage of the "13th Five-Year Plan." All existing administrative villages have fully realized "broadband access to every village". 一根网线，打通了广大农村接入数字经济时代的“大动脉”。目前，我国农村互联网普及率达到59.2%，较“十三五”初期翻了一番，现有行政村全面实现“村村通宽带”。 For all of 2021, our country's online retail sales of physical goods reached 10,804.2 billion yuan, an increase of 12.0%, accounting for 24.5% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, making it the world's top online retail market for many consecutive years. 2021年全年，我国实物商品网上零售额108042亿元，增长12.0%，占社会消费品零售总额的比重为24.5%，连续多年成为全球第一大网络零售市场。 Smart medical care, remote consultation, digital management of "[traffic] jams,” digitalized coordination of government affairs, an "epidemic prevention health code"... The "human touch" that information technology brings to a city is reflected in many details of life. 智慧医疗、远程问诊，数字治“堵”，政务数字化协同，“防疫健康码”……信息技术为城市增添的“人情味”，体现在很多生活细节中。 "If the digital economy during the '13th Five-Year Plan' period mainly developed from consumer-side platforms, then during the '14th Five-Year Plan' period the digitalization and intelligentization of production side platforms is the important new growth point. Focusing on the real economy and empowering the real economy is based on demand and it is also where the wind is blowing.” “如果说‘十三五’时期数字经济主要从消费端的平台发力，那么‘十四五’时期生产端数字化、智能化将成为重要的新增长点。着眼实体经济、赋能实体经济，是需求所致，也是风口所在。” Looking to the future, in terms of understanding it is necessary to deeply grasp the "three benefits" (see note below) of the healthy development of the digital economy, but also to discern the trend of development, identify the trend of industry, make up for shortcomings, improve supporting facilities, and better regulate the development of the digital economy. 面向未来，既要在认识上深刻把握数字经济健康发展的“三个有利于”，也要辨清发展形势，把准产业趋势，补齐短板、完善配套，更好地规范数字经济发展。
Note: The "three benefits" were first introduced by Deng Xiaoping during his Southern Tour in 1992. They ask if the economy is conducive to: (1) developing the forces of production in a socialist society, (2) enhancing the comprehensive national power of a socialist country, and (3) improving the living standards of the people.
