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China’s Artificial Intelligence Innovation: A Top‐Down National Command Approach?

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  • Jinghan Zeng

Abstract

China’s open embracing of the age of artificial intelligence (AI) has attracted considerable academic and media attention. Many argue that China has taken advantage of its national approach to contest for AI supremacy and geopolitical dominance. The relevant analyses assume China’s AI plans as being Beijing’s coherent top‐down geopolitically driven national strategy, reflecting Chinese leaders’ global ambitions. This article argues that these views are mistaken. It argues that China’s AI plans are primarily driven by contestation and the struggle for resources among domestic stakeholders who are economically motivated and have little awareness of the bigger geopolitical picture. Instead of a top‐down command approach, China’s national AI plan is an upgrade of existing local AI initiatives to the national level, reflecting a bottom‐up development. This article suggests that the existing analyses vastly exaggerate: (1) Beijing’s capacity to coordinate domestic capital and actors towards a unified, specific strategic objective; and (2) the extent of China’s AI advancement and its geopolitical threat, triggering unnecessary anxiety among China’s near competitors.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinghan Zeng, 2021. "China’s Artificial Intelligence Innovation: A Top‐Down National Command Approach?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(3), pages 399-409, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:12:y:2021:i:3:p:399-409
    DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.12914
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wallace, Jeremy L., 2016. "Juking the Stats? Authoritarian Information Problems in China," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 11-29, January.
    2. Shahar Hameiri & Lee Jones & John Heathershaw, 2019. "Reframing the rising powers debate: state transformation and foreign policy," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 1397-1414, August.
    3. Jinghan Zeng, 2019. "Narrating China's belt and road initiative," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(2), pages 207-216, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Khan, Haider, 2023. "Geoeconomics, China, Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Future," MPRA Paper 117362, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Khan, Haider, 2023. "China’s Augmented National Innovation System (ANIS) and the Future: A Nonlinear Complex Systems Model with Application to Semiconductors and AI," MPRA Paper 116836, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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