The digital rise and its economic implications for China through the Digital Silk Road under the Belt and Road Initiative

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Abstract

This research, based on a review of secondary information, explores how the government of China and the country's leading technological enterprises are working together to develop infrastructure for next-generation digital technologies, e.g. artificial intelligence, cloud computing, quantum computing, 5G networks, navigation satellites, and fiber optic cables; to establish technical norms and standards; and to provide services and digital content, e.g. digital messaging applications, mobile payment systems, and e-commerce platforms, to emergent markets; as well as how digital corporate giants of China like Alibaba, Huawei, Baidu, ZTE, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and Tencent have been challenging the prevailing status quo. Beijing seeks to assert its dominant role in world affairs through the Digital Silk Road (DSR) to globally influence and control a sizable part of the digital economy. The DSR has significant potential for enhancement of digital interdependence with the underdeveloped and some advanced economies by bridging the gap created by the absence of a critical infrastructure of global digital technology. There is no viable competitor to the DSR's exciting and long-term vision of a globally connected digital future for facilitating mutual growth and collaboration that will ultimately push for a dependency of other countries on DSR under the Belt and Road Initiative.