Emergence of China's Smart State

China’s emergence as a technology leader has become a major factor in geopolitics, transforming global political and economic relationships. In its bid to achieve digital great power status, China’s government has reformed laws and policies, drastically increased investment, and become more assertive internationally. Chinese companies have expanded at home and abroad, but relationships between government and the private sector have sometimes been fractious.

This open access book assesses the extent to which the Chinese government has been able to achieve its ambitious digital goals, and more broadly, how this reflects rapidly changing domestic and international political and economic dynamics surrounding China’s rise as a major technology player. This is the first book of its kind, interrogating the complex, dynamic interactions between political, market, and technological factors that structure China’s digital development. It will provide information and intellectual frameworks for scholars, policymakers, and professionals to appreciate the complexity of China’s digital policy landscape, the process of learning and iteration the Party continues to experience as external events impact the policy process, and the impact China’s innovation policies, regulations, and achievements have had, or may have, in the future.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Rogier Creemers is a lecturer in modern Chinese studies at Leiden University. His research focuses on Chinese domestic digital technology policy, as well as China's growing importance in global digital affairs. He is the principal investigator of the NWO Vidi Project "The Smart State: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Law in China". For the Leiden Asia Centre, he directs a project on China and global cybersecurity, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also a co-founder of DigiChina, a joint initiative with Stanford University and New America.

Straton Papagianneas is a PhD candidate at Leiden University for Area Studies (LIAS). His PhD project will evaluate the role of smart systems in the post-4th Plenum legal reform agenda. This agenda intends to enhance the professionalization of courts and law enforcement bodies, strengthen courts’ autonomy from local governments, broaden access to justice, and give priority to formal litigation.

Adam Knight is a PhD candidate at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) where he focuses on the design, implementation, and consequences of the Chinese social credit system. He is a regular media commentator as well as speaker on the topic of smart governance and internet policy in China.