Digital China Bookshelf

Explore this curated bookshelf of articles, books, commentaries, and essays on China’s elite triad of digital strategies, with special emphasis on the Digital China strategy.

Inside China, discussion of Digital China is vast. Thousands of publications explicitly name and explain the strategy. This bookshelf presents only a small but representative sample of that literature.

Outside China, the picture is very different. Fewer than a few dozen articles accurately identify and describe Digital China as a national strategy, and most of those are listed below. The number of publications that misidentify or misunderstand the strategy is far larger, none of which are included here.

Intriguingly, many Western experts describe Digital China’s goals and mechanisms in detail yet never mention the strategy by name, suggesting that analysts often examine the phenomenon without recognizing the strategic framework that defines and drives it.

In short, there is still much work to be done.

The bookshelf begins with my short list of must reads.

Ten Must Reads [Chronological]

Zheng Bijian (郑必坚), “Face the Challenge with Comprehensive Planning; Strive to Build a World Class Cyber Great Power in Ten Years” (直面挑战统筹经略力争十年建成世界一流网络强国), State Council Secretariat Second Bureau, April 3, 2013 | Analysis | Translation | Archive
Comment: This is Zheng Bijian’s classified 2013 proposal to the Central Committee to build China into a Cyber Great Power within ten years. A historic exchange.

“Comrade Zheng Bijian’s Proposal on Building a World-Class Cyber Great Power Deserves Careful Study” (郑必坚同志关于建设世界一流网络强国的建议值得认真研究), Central Committee, July 28, 2013 | Analysis | Translation | Archive
Comment: This is the Central Committee’s classified response to Zheng Bijian’s 2013 proposal to build China into a Cyber Great Power within ten years. A historic exchange.

Ren Zhongwen (任仲文), Digital China: A Reader for Leading Cadre (数字中国：领导干部读本), People’s Daily Press, June 1, 2018
Comment: This 212-page book is essential reading to understand the foundation of Chinese Communist Party theory, intent, and planning to accelerate Building Digital China following its elevation at the 19th Party Congress in 2017. The book was penned by the elite People’s Daily writing group known by its pseudonym Ren Zhongwen. I will post translated excerpts from the book on this website, as time permits.🤞

Ren Zhongwen (任仲文), Smart Society: A Reader for Leading Cadre (智慧社会：领导干部读本), People’s Daily Press, July 7, 2019
Comment: This 214-page book is essential reading to understand the foundation of Chinese Communist Party theory, intent, and planning to realize the construction of Smart Society following its elevation at the 19th Party Congress in 2017. The book was penned by the elite People’s Daily writing group known by its pseudonym Ren Zhongwen. I will post translated excerpts from the book on this website, as time permits.🤞

“Digital Fujian is the Ideological Origin of Digital China” (数字福建是数字中国的思想源头), Guangming Daily (光明日报), Page 1, April 23, 2018 | Analysis | Translation | Guangming Daily
Comment: This article was the lead-off in a wide domestic education and propaganda campaign in 2018 that primarily served to connect Xi Jinping personally to the origin of the Digital China concept. The article remains a key source of Chinese Communist Party narratives on Digital China.

“Digital China Wins the Future” (数字中国赢在未来), Outlook Weekly “Governance Events” Column (瞭望·治国理政纪事), February 19, 2022 | Analysis | Translation | Outlook Weekly
Comment: According to Xinhua, Outlook Weekly news magazine published a “blockbuster” report on Digital China. The report neatly fuses popular Party narratives on Digital China with the strategy’s ideological roots.

Dorman, David and John Hemmings, “Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications,” Issues and Insights, February 22, 2023 | Issues and Insights
Comment: This is the first peer reviewed paper published (outside China) on the Digital China strategy. The paper explores the strategy’s strategic framework, “grand” scope, Marxist underpinnings, and transformative/competitive goals.

Zhuang Rongwen (庄荣文), “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), People’s Daily, March 03, 2023, Page 10 | Analysis | Translation | People’s Daily
Comment: CAC Director Zhuang Rongwen describes Digital China as a key component of the Party’s socialist modernization efforts with profound significance nationally, internationally, politically, ideologically, and strategically.

“Digital China Construction Series” (数字中国建设系列), Beijing Party Member Education Network (北京党员教育网), April 11, 2025 | Translation | Beijing Party Committee
Comment: The Beijing Party Committee released a remarkable 13-lesson course on China’s national digital strategy, Digital China. Aimed at Party cadre and members, the course provides a structured, state-approved primer on the strategy’s origins, missions, concepts, institutions, and implementation mechanisms.

Liu Liehong (刘烈宏), “Using Advanced Data Infrastructure to Support the Construction of Digital China” (以高水平数据基础设施助力数字中国建设), Qiushi, March 01, 2026 | Analysis | Translation | Qiushi
Comment: NDA Director Liu Liehong’s commentary opens a revealing window into how Beijing views the role of data infrastructure in the next phase of the Digital China strategy.

Articles, Books, Commentaries, and Essays [Alphabetical]

Arcesati, Rebecca, “China’s Digital Transition: Balancing Development, Security, and Sustainability to Lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” in Carlo Secchi and Alessandro Gili, eds., “Digitalisation for Sustainable Infrastructure: The Road Ahead,” ISPI, October 17, 2022
Comment: Rebecca Arcesati is one of the first experts outside China to identify Digital China as a national strategy.

Arcesati, Rebecca, “E-government and Covid-19: Digital China goes global,” MERICS, May 17, 2022
Comment: Rebecca Arcesati highlights the appearance of “Digital China” in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and explores Beijing’s national and global implementation of digital transformation.

Baughman, Joshua, “The Path to China’s Intelligentized Warfare: Converging on the Metaverse Battlefield,” Cyber Defense Review, December 19, 2024
Comment: Joshua Baughman examines the intersection of digital twin technologies, the metaverse, intelligentized warfare, and Digital China.

Baughman, Joshua, “Enhancing the Battleverse: The People’s Liberation Army’s Digital Twin Strategy,” Military Cyber Affairs, May 17, 2023
Comment: Joshua Baughman is the first writer outside China to highlight a link between metaverse-related technologies, specifically digital twin technology, and the Digital China strategy.

“Charting a Clear Course for the Construction of Digital China: The 15th Five-Year Plan Centers on Data” (为数字中国建设划定清晰路线 “十五五” 有“数”), China Central Television, March 17, 2026 | Analysis | Translation | CCTV
Comment: This CCTV report closely mirrors the Digital China sections of the 15th Five-Year Plan and reinforces a key point: the Party is organizing Digital China as a coordinated system of supply (compute, algorithms, data), deployment (AI+), and governance (institutions, regulation, and international engagement).

“China’s AI/ML Data Environment: Ambitions, Opportunities, and Limitations,” UVA National Security Data and Policy Institute, May 13, 2025
Comment: An in-depth analysis of China’s AI/ML data ecosystem, including its relationship to Digital China.

“Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Annual Report 2023,” May 10, 2024
Comment: The CECC 2023 Annual Report includes a section on “Digital China Policy Developments” as part of the report’s new chapter entitled “Technology-Enhanced Authoritarianism.”

“Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Annual Report 2022,” November 14, 2022
Comment: The CECC 2022 Annual Report includes a single reference to Digital China in the report’s chapter on “Technology-Enhanced Social Control.”

Creemers, Rogier, “The Chinese Conception of Cybersecurity: A Conceptual, Institutional, and Regulatory Genealogy,” Journal of Contemporary China, March 30, 2023
Comment: Rogier Creemers traces the intellectual origins and bureaucratic evolution of China’s notion of cybersecurity, showing how it has been shaped by competing government ministries, legal reforms, and the CCP’s broader national security vision.

Creemers, Rogier, Graham Webster, Paul Triolo, Katharin Tai, Lorand Laskai, and Abigail Coplin, “Lexicon: 网络强国 (Wǎngluò Qiángguó) Understanding and Translating a Crucial Slogan and ‘Cyber Superpower’ Ambition,” New America, May 31, 2018
Comment: This collaborative piece with DigiChina unpacks the political, ideological, and strategic significance of Wǎngluò Qiángguó in Chinese discourse.

de La Bruyère, Emily, “The Network Great-Power Strategy A Blueprint for China’s Digital Ambitions,” Asia Policy, April 28, 2021
Comment: Emily De La Bruyère argues that Beijing’s network ambitions are not merely technological or military but structural and global, focused on remaking the international system through data governance, digital infrastructure, and standards-setting.

Deng Zhonghan (邓中翰), “Chip Journey: China’s Strength in the Computing Power Era” (“芯”征程: 算力时代的中国力量), Digital China Summit Organizing Committee, May 16, 2025 | Translation | Digital China Organizing Committee
Comment: In a May 16, 2025 interview with the Digital China Summit Organizing Committee, Vimicro Chairman and CEO Deng Zhonghan outlined a technical roadmap for advancing the national Digital China strategy through secure data architecture, AI-optimized chips, and scalable compute infrastructure.

“Digital Economy Gives the World a China Model” (数字经济为世界提供中国样板), People’s Daily, November 29, 2017 | Translation | People’s Daily
Comment: This People’s Daily article and cartoon says lays out an important developing Party narrative on Digital China: the digital economy will transform China’s overall economy and society, benefiting the entire nation and serving as a future global model of socialist development.

David Dorman and John Hemmings, “China’s Digital Challenge: Hidden in Plain Sight, Bigger Than You Thought, and Much Harder to Solve,” CSIS, May 11, 2022
Comment: This essay highlights the importance of understanding New Type Infrastructure, one of Digital China’s major technical missions and, in a much broader sense, a major Xi Jinping-led industrial policy framework for the digital age.

Dorman, David, “How China Will Dominate the Global Competition Over Data,” The National Interest, April 28, 2022
Comment: This is my opening effort to highlight China’s launch of “Eastern Data Western Computing” project.

Dorman, David, “China’s Plan for Digital Dominance,” War on the Rocks, March 28, 2022
Comment: This essay provides the first general overview of the Digital China strategy published outside China.

Dorman, David, “Making the Most of It, Party II: Xi Jinping Leverages Coronavirus ‘War Without Smoke’ to Spur Digital Transformation, Test National Defense Mobilization,” Security Nexus, April 27, 2020
Comment: My research on Digital China began here, with Xi Jinping calling for the accelerated construction of “New Type Infrastructure” during the COVID-19 pandemic. I had never seen the term before, but the context made it clear that it merited much closer attention.

Doshi, Rush with Emily de La Bruyère, Nathan Picarsic, and John Ferguson, “China as a “Cyber Great Power” Beijing’s Two Voices in Telecommunications,” The Brookings Institution, April 5, 2021
Comment: This external “dilution” of Cyber Great Power also characterizes Digital China. I was struck to read about the similarities between the external media presentation of “Cyber Great Power” and “Digital China.”

Ewbank, Jennifer, “The Year of the (Digital) Dragon,” The Cipher Brief, July 17,2024
Comment: Jennifer Ewbank’s “The Year of the (Digital) Dragon” brings welcome visibility to a topic that, despite its strategic importance, still receives far too little sustained attention in U.S. policy and analytical circles.

Groenewegen-Lau, Jeroen, “Whole-of-nation innovation: Does China’s socialist system give it an edge in science and technology?” MERICS, March 5, 2024
Comment: Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau provides critical insights on the New Style Whole-of-Nation System, facilitating our understanding of Digital China‘s Digital Technology Innovation System integration with the concept.

Haluza, Zac, “Building a Digital China,” Root Access, March 7, 2023
Comment: Zac Haluza provides a useful summary and analysis of the February 2023 Central Committee & State Council published “Plan for the Global Layout of Digital China Construction” and the wider Digital China program.

“The ‘Internet Power’ Strategy,” The State Council Information Office, March 16, 2018 | Analysis | SCIO
Comment: In this article the State Council Information office translates “网络强国“ as “Internet Power” rather than “Cyber Great Power.”

Jiang, Ben “China’s grand digitalisation plan to give a shot in the arm to country’s battered internet sector, analysts say,” South China Morning Post, March 1, 2023 | Analysis | SCMP
Comment: A useful analysis of the new Digital China Plan, but through the porthole of Beijing’s new propaganda narrative on Digital China.

Kania, Elsa, Samm Sacks, Paul Triolo, and Graham Webster, “China’s Strategic Thinking on Building Power in Cyberspace,” New America, September 25, 2017
Comment: The authors offer comments and a translation of an important September 2017 commentary in Qiushi, which explores cyberspace as a domain of power, titled “Deepening the Implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Strategic Thinking on Building China into a Cyber Superpower: Steadily Advancing Cybersecurity and Informatization Work.”
Reference: 中央网信办理论学习中心组, “深入贯彻习近平总书记网络强国战略思想扎实推进网络安全和信息化工作,” 求是, September 15, 2017

Li Guangqian (李广乾), “Injecting New Momentum Into Digital China Construction” (为数字中国建设注入新动力), Legal Daily (法治日报), March 15, 2023 | Analysis | Translation | Legal Daily
Comment: Li Guangqian discusses the establishment of the National Data Administration and the key issues it faces in implementing the Digital China strategy.

Li Junqiang (李君强), “Evolving” Cities, “Renewed” Living (People’s Commentary)” (城市“进化”，生活“向新” 人民时评) , People’s Daily (人民日报), December 1, 2025, Page 5 | Analysis | Translation | People’s Daily
Comment: The next stage of Digital China will be decided in Smart Cities. Beijing’s strategic goal is not merely to win a technology race. It is to build Digital China as a coherent, urban, lived system that will elevate the People’s Livelihood, ensure continued Party rule, and expand globally.

Liu, Lizhi. “The Rise of Data Politics: Digital China and the World,” Studies in Comparative International Development, March 19, 2021
Comment: Liu Lizhi has written an important and interesting academic study on data politics and China. I don’t think there is another like it in English.

Liu Tong (刘彤), “Strengthen Computing Power New-Type Infrastructure to Consolidate the Foundation of Digital China” (夯实算力新基建　筑牢数字中国底座), People’s Posts and Telecommunications (人民邮电), March 13, 2026, Page 2 | Analysis | Translation | Posts and Telecom
Comment: China’s approach to artificial intelligence is undergoing a quiet but consequential shift. This translation highlights how Chinese policymakers are reframing computing power as a national system integrating infrastructure, energy, and markets.

“Opening Remarks by SMS(CI) Tan Kiat How at Singapore-China Digital Policy Dialogue,” Singapore Ministry of Digital Development and Information, June 27 2024 | Analysis | MDDI
Comment: The inaugural Singapore-China Digital Policy Dialogue represented a step forward in the two countries coordinating their respective national digital strategies, Smart Nation and Digital China.

“Outlook Weekly published an article: Digital China Wins the Future“ (瞭望刊发文章：数字中国赢在未来),” Xinhua Online (新华网), February 21, 2022 | Analysis | Translation | Xinhua
Comment: This article is a Xinhua summary of the much longer Outlook Weekly article, “Digital China Wins the Future,” published on February 19, 2022.

Pao, Jeff, “Chinese industries to go digital or die; ‘Digital China’ plan emphasizes ‘industrial internet’ in a state-led drive for world-class competitiveness and supply chain supremacy,” Asia Times, March 11, 2023
Comment: Jeff Pao provides an assessment of the February 2023 Digital China plan, National Data Administration, and New Type Infrastructure’s Industrial Internet sub-category. He is among the first writers to explicitly connect the Industrial Internet to the Digital China strategy.

Pao, Jeff, “China’s grand plan for a world-beating digital future,” Asia Times, March 8, 2023
Comment: Jeff Pao provides an assessment of the goals driving the “new Digital China vision,” newly proposed National Data Administration, and newly issued “Overall Layout Plan for the Development of a Digital China.”

Sacks, Samm, “Disruptors, Innovators, and Thieves: Assessing Innovation in China’s Digital Economy,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 1, 2018
Comment: Samm Sacks may be the first expert outside China to identify Digital China as a developmental priority.

Samal, Swayamsiddha and Megha Pardhi, “Integrating computing power for ‘Digital China‘,” Asia Times, July 4, 2022
Comment: Swayamsiddha Samal and Megha Pardhi at the Takshashila Institution are among the first experts outside China to identify the link between New Type Infrastructure‘s Eastern Data Western Computing project and the Digital China strategy.

Webster, Graham, Kevin Neville, Seaton Huang, and Zac Haluza, “Translation: ‘Plan for the Overall Layout of Building a Digital China’,” Digichina, March 3, 2023
Comment: Continued good work by the DigiChina Project to publish timely translations of primary sources, contextual explanation, and analysis on China’s technology policy.

“What is the Secret Digital China Strategy All About?” The Times of India, June 13, 2023
Comment: The Times of India is the first major national newspaper outside China to produce a comprehensive report on China’s national digital strategy, Digital China.

Wu, Lianfeng, IDC China. “Four Impacts of the National Digital Plan on the Acceleration of Digital Businesses in China,” March 20, 2023
Comment: Wu Lianfeng explores the impact of the new Digital China plan going global on China’s ICT industry.

“Xi Jinping’s Digital Strategy for China,” U.S. State Department Foreign Press Center Briefing, March 01, 2023 | Archive | State Department
Comment: “Dr. Dave Dorman and Dr. John Hemmings of the Pacific Forum will be presenting their findings on Digital China and Xi Jinping’s digital strategy for China. We suspect that their findings will be of great interest, particularly for those of you who cover the intersection of technology and geopolitics.”

“Xi Jinping: Speech at the Work Conference for Cybersecurity and Informatization“ (习近平：在网络安全和信息化工作座谈会上的讲话), Xinhua, April 25, 2016 | Analysis | Translation: China Copyright and Media | Xinhua
Comment: The term “information aorta” was coined by Xi Jinping in his famous “4.19” speech at the 2016 Work Conference for Cybersecurity and Informatization. The term quickly became the standard PRC media metaphor for “New Type Infrastructure.”

Xue, Yujie, “China calls for faster push into 5G, IoT and supercomputing engines of growth in new grand digitalisation plan,” South China Morning Post, February 27, 2023 | Analysis | SCMP
Comment: A useful analysis of the new Digital China Plan, but through the porthole of Beijing’s new propaganda narrative on Digital China.

YANG Jian (杨剑), “When the Global Digital Ecosystem Encounters Hegemonic Politics: The ‘Huawei Confrontation’ in 5G Market Negotiations” (当全球数字生态遭遇霸权政治 – 5G市场谈判中的 ‘华为冲突’), Pacific Journal (太平洋学报) March 15, 2021
Comment: Yang Jian does not raise China’s elite digital strategies but provides an interesting perspective on the international environment that the digital strategies are designed, at least in part, to confront and overcome.

Zhang Yixin (张译心), “Construction of Digital China Enters a New Stage of Comprehensive Deepening” (数字中国建设步入全面深化新阶段), Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), December 09, 2025, Page A01 | Analysis | Translation | Chinese Social Sciences Today
Comment: This article serves as a useful marker of how China’s think-tank and academic communities now understand the state of Digital China as the 15th Five-Year Plan begins to take shape. In short, they see not merely acceleration, but consolidation, integration, and elevation in strategic intent.