How China intends to become a “cyber power”

Abstract

Since 2014, becoming a “major cyber power” has been a high-priority objective for China’s leadership, acting as an organizing principle for both domestic and foreign policymaking on digital affairs. But what does it mean to be a cyber power from the Chinese perspective ? How does China perceive and define notions of power in the digital realm, and how does it seek to operationalize them ? This article will review these questions on the basis of the growing corpus of Chinese policy, legal and regulatory texts. It argues that China’s view of cyber power is deeply influenced by combining Chinese domestic development policy with growing concern about the potential threat posed by the United States. Moreover, this article reviews to what extent China has realized its own definition of power, finding that the picture, thus far, remains highly uneven : where China acts with growing strength and confidence domestically, particularly in the catch-up of specific kinds of technology, its diplomatic engagement remains lacking in effect.