State Council Secretariat | Build a World Class Cyber Great Power in Ten Years

“The struggle between China and the United States in cyberspace is intensifying. The U.S. policy of containment against China has expanded from physical space to cyberspace, aiming to place China in a passive position.”
Zheng Bijian, “Face the Challenge with Comprehensive Planning; Strive to Build a World Class Cyber Great Power in Ten Years,” State Council Secretariat Second Bureau, April 3, 2013

Zheng Bijian, the Marxist theorist credited with originating the concept of “China’s Peaceful Rise,” also first proposed China’s Cyber Great Power strategy. This remarkable historical insight was contained in a classified proposal made by Zheng to the State Council on April 3, 2013 (recorded by the State Council Secretariat’s Second Bureau on May 31, 2013, and published on June 4, 2013).

In his April 2013 proposal, titled “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), Zheng argued to central authorities that China should seek to build itself into a world class Cyber Great Power within 10 years.

Zheng’s timeline and recommendation were based on his assessment that U.S. policy to contain China had expanded from physical space to cyberspace, and China needed to formulate a strategy to respond. Specifically, he called for a strategy designed to reverse China’s passivity in cyberspace within three years and to effectively compete with the U.S. in cyberspace within 10 years.

When Zheng Bijian made his 2013 proposal he was serving as the director of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy (国家创新与发展战略研究会) in Beijing.

As Dr. Yang Jian, vice president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, would later explain, the watershed competition that China faced is not over technology per se but instead over the future of the global digital ecosystem and the hegemonic politics that dominate it.¹ In Zheng Bijian’s view, Beijing had a 10-year window to achieve cyber great power status to avoid cyber containment by the United States. In short, “cyber warfare is no longer a matter of whether China wants to fight, but instead how long before it will be forced to act.”

Interestingly, there is some evidence that Zheng Bijian’s 10-year timeline still stands. Party discourse on the status of China’s transition from a Cyber (Major) Power to a Cyber (Great) Power has appeared more regularly over the past year, just as Zheng’s 2023 deadline has arrived.

A partial translation of Zheng Bijian’s 2013 proposal to the State Council Secretariat on Cyber Great Power follows below (only the first page is available):

Confidential (Classified)
Responsible Unit: State Council Secretariat Second Bureau
Publication date: June 4, 2013
机密
承办单位：国办秘書二局
发布日期： 2013年6月4日

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

China Institute for Innovation & Development Strategy
Zheng Bijian
国家创新与发展战略研究院
郑必坚

April 3, 2013

2013年4月3日

The struggle between China and the United States in cyberspace is intensifying. The U.S. policy of containment against China has expanded from physical space to cyberspace, aiming to place China in a passive position.
中美在网络空间的斗争越演越烈，美对华遏制政策已从实体空间向网络空间扩展，企图置我于被动境地。

Cyber warfare is no longer a matter of whether we want to fight it or not; it has reached a point where we have no choice but to respond.
网络战已经不是我们想不想打，而是到了不得不接招的时候。

Facing an aggressive offensive strategy from the U.S. side, where are our shortcomings?
面对美方咄咄逼人的攻势战略，我们的缺失在哪里？

Does our strategy need to be adjusted?
战略是否要调整？

Now we need to reflect deeply from the perspective of national strategy, make overall considerations, face up to challenges, formulate appropriate strategies, and strive to reverse the passive situation within three years and effectively counterbalance within ten years.
现在需要从国家战略高度深入反思，整体考量，直面挑战，指定恰当的方略，力争三年之内扭转被动，十年之内有效抗衡。

First, the United States has a strong layout in cyberspace, a continuing strategy, to strategically contain us.
一，美在网络空间强力布局，特续经略，对我形成战略围堵

As the birthplace of computers and the Internet, the United States has a thorough understanding of the immense strategic value of cyberspace and has taken solid actions. Since the Clinton Administration…
作为计算机和互联网的发源地，美对网络空间巨大的战略价值认识透彻，行动扎实。自克林顿政府以…