Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction 深入贯彻落实党的二十大精神 以数字中国建设助力中国式现代化
Zhuang Rongwen, “Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction,” People’s Daily, Page 10 (Politics), March 03, 2023
Digital China is now formally embedded in the post-20th Party Congress modernization narrative: ideologically justified, politically essential, and strategically decisive.
Several dozen official documents and authoritative commentaries form the core public corpus explaining the top-level design, strategic framework, and long-term objectives of Digital China. Among the most important of these are the writings of Zhuang Rongwen, director of the Cyberspace Administration of China and deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department. Zhuang is widely viewed within the Party as a trusted ally of Xi Jinping on digital policy and a public voice on digital governance.
This post examines one of Zhuang’s most consequential commentaries: his March 3, 2023 article in People’s Daily. Zhuang uses striking language to frame the recently released Plan for the Global Layout of Digital China Construction and his commentary stands among the most authoritative articulations to date of Digital China’s role in the Chinese Communist Party’s broader modernization project. Most importantly, it marks the first explicit, authoritative linkage between Digital China and Chinese-Style Modernization, a core outcome of the 20th National Party Congress.
Zhuang’s long-standing relationship with Xi Jinping, dating back to Xi’s tenure in Fuzhou where his early thinking on Digital Fujian first emerged, underscores the significance of this intervention. His commentary communicates to Party cadres and the broader public that Digital China is not merely a technology initiative, but a fundamental pillar of socialist modernization with national, international, political, ideological, and strategic implications.
For observers seeking to understand where China’s digital strategy is heading, Zhuang Rongwen’s commentary is not supplemental reading. It is foundational.
National Significance: Digital China as the Engine of Modernization
“Accelerating Building Digital China has become the inevitable choice to harness the driving and leading role of Informatization and to advance Chinese Style Modernization”
加快建设数字中国是发挥信息化驱动引领作用、推进中国式现代化的必然选择。Zhuang Rongwen, “Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction,” People’s Daily, Page 10 (Politics), March 03, 2023
Zhuang situates Digital China squarely within the Party’s national framework for socialist modernization in the digital age. He emphasizes the intrinsic linkage between National Informatization, now embodied in Digital China, and the broader project of Chinese Style Modernization. In this framing, informatization is no longer a supporting process but the primary driver of system-level transformation.
Domestically, Digital China is presented as a means to enhance both societal efficiency and social equity through coordinated digital transformation. Internationally, it is positioned as a viable alternative to Western capitalist modernization models. This dual narrative, domestic performance and international competitiveness, forms the backbone of the Party’s digital propaganda and policy messaging.
International Significance: Digital China Elevated to a Global Strategy
“(Digital China reflects) major decisions and plans made by the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the Core to grasp the broad developmental trend of the Information Revolution, stand for the new journey of comprehensively building a Modernized Socialist Country, and coordinate the two situations, domestic and international.”
这是以习近平同志为核心的党中央把握信息革命发展大势、立足全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程、统筹国内国际两个大局作出的重大决策部署。Zhuang Rongwen, “Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction,” People’s Daily, Page 10 (Politics), March 03, 2023
Zhuang explicitly embeds Digital China within the Party’s global strategic outlook. He emphasizes that the newly announced Digital China Plan incorporates the international environment into Digital China’s top-level design, signaling that coordination of domestic and international objectives is now central to the strategy.
Notably, Zhuang introduces a new formulation titled the “Global Strategy for Digital China Construction in the New Era.” This language reflects an ambition to extend China’s influence over digital norms, institutions, markets, and governance frameworks beyond its borders, an unmistakable signal that Digital China has entered a global phase.
Political Significance: Digital China as a Pillar of Party Rule
“Accelerating Building Digital China is the inevitable choice to consolidate the Party’s long-term ruling status and promote the modernization of the National Governance System and governance capacity.”
加快建设数字中国是巩固党的长期执政地位、推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的必然选择。Zhuang Rongwen, “Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction,” People’s Daily, Page 10 (Politics), March 03, 2023
Zhuang reinforces a long-standing Xi Jinping principle: that informatization is essential to the Party’s enduring governing capacity. Digital China is framed as a mechanism for modernizing governance, strengthening state capacity, and reinforcing Party legitimacy in the digital age.
This political logic is reflected in several recurring priorities:
- Enforcing the newest Party principle of Party Control Over Data;
- Improving social equity and the People’s Livelihood through digitalized development;
- Raising system-level efficiency across the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan; and
- Enhancing the digital literacy and data competence of Party cadre.
Ideological Significance: Digital China and the Sinification of Marxism
“At present, digital technology is increasingly becoming the leading force in innovation-driven development, initiating a digital transformation with global, strategic and revolutionary significance, driving the transformation of human society’s Mode of Production, reconstructing the Relations of Production, reorganizing the Economic Structure (Base), and bringing dramatic change to the Way of Life.”
当前，数字技术日益成为创新驱动发展的先导力量，开启了一次具有全局性、战略性、革命性意义的数字化转型，带动人类社会生产方式变革、生产关系再造、经济结构重组、生活方式巨变。Zhuang Rongwen, “Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction,” People’s Daily, Page 10 (Politics), March 03, 2023
Zhuang frames Digital China as a living application of Marxist theory under contemporary conditions. Drawing on Xi Jinping Thought, he presents digital innovation as a means of liberating productive forces and transforming production relations—core concepts of historical materialism.
In this ideological narrative, the digital age is not merely technological, but civilizational. Concepts such as Chinese Style Modernization and New Quality Productive Forces are presented as updated Marxist formulations, adapted to China’s digital context and strategic needs.
Strategic Significance: Digital China is China’s Path to Win the Future
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that informatization provides a favorable opportunity for our country to seize the high ground in the new round of development and build new advantages in international competition. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Chinese nation.
习近平总书记多次强调，信息化为我国抢占新一轮发展制高点、构筑国际竞争新优势提供了有利契机，为中华民族带来了千载难逢的机遇。Zhuang Rongwen, “Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction,” People’s Daily, Page 10 (Politics), March 03, 2023
At the highest strategic level, Zhuang presents Digital China as the decisive project through which China will secure its future. Domestically, it promises a modernized governance model and enhanced national cohesion. Internationally, it underpins efforts to reshape global rules and institutions in ways more favorable to the Party’s core interests.
In this calculus, Digital China is not simply about technology adoption. It is the Party’s chosen pathway to building a Modernized Socialist Country that is digitally advanced, ideologically coherent, and globally influential.