CECC Annual Report Highlights Digital China, a U.S. Government First

"Digital China" Policy Developments

PRC officials continued to promote "Digital China," one of Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s long-term strategic plans, which prioritizes the digitalization of governance in China and expansive control of data.26 In March 2023, the Party Central Committee and State Council jointly released the "Plan for the Overall Layout of Building a Digital China" (Digital China),27 which a commentator on technology observed28 provides "a framework for contextualizing the roles of digital infrastructure [and] the data economy."29 The same commentator highlighted Digital China’s ambitious timeframe and scale, noting that "the plan" specifies that the foundation for a Digital China should be completed by 2025 and should include building an interconnected and efficient digital infrastructure, expanding data resources, and increasing government digitalization.30 An analysis from Bitter Winter, an online magazine that reports primarily on religious repression in China, called attention to one dimension of the Party’s role in Digital China’s implementation, whereby "local [Chinese] Communist Party committees" will expand internet access to every village in China while also "bringing control and surveillance" over all Chinese citizens.31

In an analysis of the strategic underpinnings of Digital China, experts at the Pacific Forum concluded that the Party "considers the ‘control of data’ to be essential to its own survival, on par with the control of media, the military, and personnel."32 They contend that Digital China is a "grand strategy" to create the world’s first data-driven governance society—which PRC officials refer to as Smart Society—the success of which is meant to demonstrate the Party’s supremacy by wielding technology to better provide for Chinese citizens.33 The March 2023 planning document on Digital China added an international development component overlapping with the Digital Silk Road, as one of the points of Digital China is to "...establish an international exchange and cooperation system for the digital domain ... jointly establish a high quality 'Digital Silk Road'; and actively develop ‘Silk Road e-commerce.'"34 In March 2023, authorities created a new ministry-level national data bureau, under the State Council’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), per the Digital China mandate.35 An NDRC researcher characterized the new bureau as responsible for the "management of data through its entire life cycle," saying that "processes like data generation, transmission, storage, processing and handling, circulation and trading, and development and use, will all be within the scope of the new bureau’s overall planning and management responsibilities."36 Data and technology are central to Digital China’s implementation, not only in more effectively providing public goods to Chinese citizens, but also in manipulating artificial intelligence (AI) and big data for social and political control.37

Notes

26 David Dorman and John Hemmings, ‘‘Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications,’’ Issues and Insights, Pacific Forum International, 23, no. 2 (February 2023): 1–3; China Cyberspace, ‘‘ ‘Zhongguo Wangxin’ zazhi fabiao ‘Xi Jinping zongshuji zhiyin woguo shuzi jichu sheshi jianshe shuping’ ’’ [‘‘China Cyberspace’’ magazine publishes a ‘‘Review of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Guide to the Construction of My Country’s Digital Infrastructure’’], reprinted in People’s Daily, April 10, 2023; ‘‘Xi Jinping: shishi Guojia Dashuju Zhanlu jiakuai jianshe Shuzi Zhongguo’’ [Xi Jinping: implement the National Big Data Strategy to accelerate the construction of Digital China], December 9, 2017.
27 Zac Haluza, ‘‘Building a Digital China,’’ Root Access (Substack), March 7, 2023; ‘‘Zhonggong Zhongyang Guowuyuan yinfa ‘Shuzi Zhongguo Jianshe Zhengti Buju Guihua’ ’’ [Central Committee and State Council publish ‘‘Plan for the Overall Layout of the Construction of Digital China’’], Xinhua, February 27, 2023.
28 Zac Haluza, ‘‘Building a Digital China,’’ Root Access (Substack), March 7, 2023; ‘‘Zhonggong Zhongyang Guowuyuan yinfa ‘Shuzi Zhongguo Jianshe Zhengti Buju Guihua’’ [Central Committee and State Council publish ‘‘Plan for the Overall Layout of the Construction of Digital China’’], Xinhua, February 27, 2023. 
29 Zac Haluza, ‘‘Building a Digital China,’’ Root Access (Substack), March 7, 2023; ‘‘Zac Haluza,’’ Root Access (Substack), accessed June 30, 2023; ‘‘ ‘Zhonggong Zhongyang Guowuyuan yinfa ‘Shuzi Zhongguo Jianshe Zhengti Buju Guihua’ ’’ [Central Committee and State Council publish ‘‘Plan for the Overall Layout of the Construction of Digital China’’], Xinhua, February 27, 2023.
30 Zac Haluza, ‘‘Building a Digital China,’’ Root Access (Substack), March 7, 2023; ‘‘Zac Haluza,’’ Root Access (Substack), accessed June 30, 2023; ‘‘ ‘Zhonggong Zhongyang Guowuyuan yinfa ‘Shuzi Zhongguo Jianshe Zhengti Buju Guihua’ ’’ [Central Committee and State Council publish ‘‘Plan for the Overall Layout of the Construction of Digital China’’], Xinhua, February 27, 2023. 
31 Tan Liwei, ‘‘The Digital China 2023 Plan: Is There Something New?,’’ Bitter Winter, March 6, 2023; ‘‘ ‘Zhonggong Zhongyang Guowuyuan yinfa ‘Shuzi Zhongguo Jianshe Zhengti Buju Guihua’ ’’ [Central Committee and State Council publish ‘‘Plan for the Overall Layout of the Construction of Digital China’’], Xinhua, February 27, 2023.
32 David Dorman and John Hemmings, ‘‘Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications,’’ Issues and Insights, Pacific Forum International, 23, no. 2 (February 2023): 1.  
33 David Dorman and John Hemmings, ‘‘Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications,’’ Issues and Insights, Pacific Forum International, 23, no. 2 (February 2023): 1. 
34 ‘‘Zhonggong Zhongyang Guowuyuan yinfa ‘Shuzi Zhongguo Jianshe Zhengti Buju Guihua’’’ [Central Committee and State Council publish ‘‘Plan for the Overall Layout of the Construction of Digital China’’], Xinhua, February 27, 2023; ‘‘Assessing China’s Digital Silk Road Initiative: A Transformative Approach to Technology Financing or a Danger to Freedoms?,’’ Council on Foreign Relations, 2020. 
35 Jian Xu, ‘‘What Does China’s Newly Launched National Data Bureau Mean to China and Global Data Governance?,’’ Internet Policy Review, April 25, 2023. 
36 Li Guangqian, ‘‘Wei Shuzi Zhongguo jianshe zhuru xin dongli’’ [Injecting new momentum in the construction of Digital China], Legal Daily, reprinted in Economic Daily, March 15, 2023; David Dorman, ‘‘The National Data Bureau’s Five Toughest Battles,’’ Digital China Wins the Future, March 16, 2023. See also Qin Chen, ‘‘Why Does China Want to Build a National Data Center System?,’’ TechNode, May 17, 2022.
37 David Dorman and John Hemmings, ‘‘Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications,’’ Issues and Insights, Pacific Forum International, 23, no. 2 (February 2023): 1; Mercator Institute for China Studies, ‘‘The CCP’s Vision for Digital Transformation, with Rebecca Arcesati,’’ May 6, 2022, 0:00–6:05; Matthew Johnson, ‘‘China’s Grand Strategy for Global Data Dominance,’’ CGSP Occasional Papers Series, Hoover Institution, no. 2 (April 2023): 7.