China’s national digital strategy has a simple name: Digital China. Few know it. More need to. Context matters.
Aloha! My name is David Dorman, and I am a former U.S. government senior executive specializing in China’s national security affairs. I live with my wife in Honolulu, where we both enjoy hiking, mele Hawaiʻi, ono grindz, and hanging out at the beach.
After retiring from government, I was struck by the fact that China’s three elite digital strategies (Digital China, Cyber Great Power, and Smart Society) are virtually absent from Western discourse, despite their central place in Chinese Communist Party strategic planning. This website is my small effort to shine a light on these strategies and the unmatched strategic insights they offer: Beijing’s authoritative vision for the digital age (highly ideological), the digital ambitions that drive it (highly competitive), and the timeline that shapes it (highly constrained).
My goal is simple: to help inform the public about these strategies; to ensure that our policymakers understand the seriousness, scope, and speed of their implementation; to assess the risks this may carry; and to facilitate dialogue with our allies and partners on an informed and constructive response.
More About this Website
This is an educational website managed by David Dorman. I maintain this website without funding or fees from any source. It offers information on China’s three elite digital strategies (Digital China, Cyber Great Power, and Smart Society) purely for teaching, research, and scholarship.
I am solely responsible for all website content. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of my past or future employers, and their endorsement is not implied and may not be inferred.
The title of this website, Digital China Wins The Future, is drawn from the opening section of the Cyberspace Administration of China’s 2017 Digital China Development Report, a theme that has repeated itself in state-run media. Most notably, “Digital China Wins the Future” served as the cover story for Xinhua’s Outlook Weekly magazine on February 21, 2022.
More About the Author
David Dorman has served as a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; inaugural director of the China Strategic Focus Group at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; principal advisor on China to four consecutive Indo-Pacific Command commanders (Admirals Keating, Willard, Locklear, and Harris); executive director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China; senior professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Chairman Joe Biden; foreign policy advisor to Senator Chuck Hagel; and as a senior China program manager, peer-certified master linguist, and peer-certified master intelligence analyst at the National Security Agency.
He was awarded the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive in 2012 by President Barack Obama for contributions to national-level strategy and policy development, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 2016 by General Joseph Dunford for work improving the operational effectiveness of the Joint Force.
David holds a Ph.D. in Government and Politics and an M.A. in International Security from the University of Maryland, College Park; an A.M. in East Asian Regional Studies from Harvard University; and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of New Mexico.
Publications on Digital China
China Has a Digital Grand Strategy. Does the President Know? PacNet, March 7, 2023
Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications Issues and Insights, February 21, 2023
China’s Digital Challenge: Hidden in Plain Sight, Bigger Than You Thought, and Much Harder to Solve CSIS, May 11, 2022
How China Will Dominate the Global Competition Over Data The National Interest, April 28, 2022
China’s Plan for Digital Dominance War on the Rocks, March 28, 2022
Making the Most of It, Part II: Xi Jinping Leverages Coronavirus ‘War Without Smoke’ to Spur Digital Transformation, Test National Defense Mobilization Security Nexus, April 27, 2020