Is China Going to Run the Digital World?

Abstract

The chapter addresses the digital landscape in China. China has succeeded over the past twenty years in articulating and implementing a strategic vision of a powerful national system of innovation. This system has begun to yield significant technological results in the digital transformation fields. The contribution also lists various reasons as to the dramatic growth of digital fields inside China-including protectionism precluding US companies from penetrating the Chinese market, and the resulting preponderant influence of China due to its enormous population. Several examples of future possible application domains, such as driverless cars and smart cities, are considered. It must be recognized that China has been able to run its own digital world, responding to its innovatory and entrepreneurial growth needs. Important impediments to the development of Chinese digital potential externally are discussed in the final section.